Isabel and the Werewolf Beast (Vampire Tales #1)

30. Dante

Chapter thirty

Dante

W alking away from Isabel after tasting her sweet arousal was pure torture. As I approached the gateway of the castle, Asher rushed forward and clasped me in a manly hug, patting my back before jerking away.

“I want you to meet the pack.”

“What pack?”

“When I ran out here after Isabel’s head incident, I stumbled across a werewolf pack. They took me in and have been teaching me the ways of werewolves.”

“You mean after you cut off her head.”

“I said I was sorry.” He pouted in the way he used to when we were little kids and he’d eaten the last of the food. “Why didn’t you tell the vampires it was me?”

“Because they’d kill you.”

“I think they might kill me, anyway.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and stared at the ground.

“Did you find out why?”

“Why what?” he asked.

“Why vampires kill werewolves.”

“No. I haven’t heard a reason.” He walked toward the forest.

I glanced back at Isabel, who was standing where I’d left her. I didn’t want to leave her, but what if I found the reason there was so much hatred between our species and I cured it? What if we could be together without having to worry about others killing us for our love? Since when did I love her, and she love me? I hurried after Asher. We couldn’t love each other. I couldn’t mate with her as my animalistic side wanted. Even if she tasted like the best aphrodisiac ever.

We walked toward a large group of twenty werewolves. Men, women, even a teenager. A man dressed in rugged clothes, sporting a beard, stepped forward.

“I’m Barth, the pack Alpha.” He held out his hand.

I placed my hand in his and shook. “Dante. Asher’s brother.”

“It’s good to meet you at last. We were worried the vampires were torturing you.”

“Torture?” I frowned. “No. They healed me. Took good care of me.”

“That is very unusual. Vampires usually kill us, not heal us.”

“It was unusual circumstances we met in.”

“So, you think these vampires won’t kill us now? ”

“I didn’t say that.” My fingers rubbed my forehead because being away from Isabel made everything in my body hurt. “I don’t think they’ll kill me. As for anyone else, I’m not sure they’d offer the same leniency. They seem set in their way of killing werewolves, but we don’t understand why. Do you?”

“Why they kill us?”

“Yes.”

“What does it matter why?” he sneered. “They’re our enemy. We have to protect ourselves from them.”

“But why?” I roared, then checked my rage. “Why are they our enemy? It doesn’t seem right that they would kill us for no reason.”

Barth scratched his head then his fingers trailed down to his beard. “I don’t know. We’ve always avoided them and stuck together. They don’t bother us when we’re in our packs.”

“Strength in numbers I suppose.”

Asher stepped beside me. “Now we have numbers. A family.”

Family? I didn’t know what that was apart from him. What it should feel like or look like. How did one act in a family? Besides Asher, I’d had no one to care about before Isabel. My heart pounded faster each second I was away from her.

“What do you comprehend about mates?” I asked.

“A werewolf mate is sacred. When we find a woman we want for our mate, then we mark her for all to see.” Barth sat on a log and ushered me to sit with him.

I sat on the scratchy bark of the fallen log, and Asher sat on the other side of me and leaned forward enraptured by his newfound family.

“How do you mark them?”

Barth flashed his teeth. “We half shift and bite them on the back of the neck.”

“That’s it? ”

“Yep. The cool part is that our bite mark glows under the light of the moon. Especially good for us nocturnal creatures.”

“Does the woman bite us back?”

He snorted. “No.”

“How do I shift at will and not be subjected to the influence of the full moon?”

“The full moon battle takes many years to perfect. Some never do. As for shifting at will, it’s about tapping into your inner animal and the power they give us. The thing that makes us a werewolf. Accept the animal and the animal becomes you so you can flow between the shapes with ease.” He waved the teenager over. “Fabian, show him what I mean.”

The gangly teenager patted his chest as though he was a large, muscular man and shifted into his half-shape.

“He’s a natural-born werewolf, so it comes easier to him, but he still had to accept his inner animal.”

The boy shifted again into a big gray wolf. A moment later he shifted back to human form.

“I can shift that quickly?”

“Yes.” Barth tapped my chest with his hand. “Accept in here.”

His fingers caught on the moonstone necklace and he held it up to the moonlight.

“Did the one you want as a mate give you this?”

“Yes.”

“She must love you to give such a powerful gemstone.” He rubbed his fingers over the moonstone. “It hums with so much power. I think there’s a protection spell embedded in it too.”

“Really?” I lifted it from his fingers and rubbed the cool surface in the way he had. I didn’t sense any spell, but speaking of spells... “Do you know how to stop a warlock?”

“Remove his head. ”

I grunted. I should have done that when I had Silas tied up. If I hadn’t gone on a mad hunt for Isabel’s head, then I would have. I should head back to Isabel and be ready for when Silas returned looking for her because I was sure he would. Crazy, evil warlocks didn’t give up on their quest that easily.

“Thank you. I must decline your offer to join your pack. My mate is back there, and I need to claim her, protect her from a warlock.” I stood and held out my hand.

“Your brother joined our pack, so that means you’re a part of it too whether you stay with us.” Barth shook my hand. “A werewolf’s mate is sacred. We’ll stick around and help protect her.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that. You don’t know me. You don’t know her.”

“We’ve got to know your brother, and he said you raised him, so you must be all right. That’s what packs do. They stick together and help each other. As for your mate being a vampire, then that’s unheard of, but I’m intrigued to learn how it will affect us.” He slapped me on the shoulder.

I faced Asher. He stared at me with shimmering eyes, but he wouldn’t cry. He never had. Not in all our years together. The bad, the worse, the horrendous. We’d stuck through it all together and now we were about to part. Conflicting emotions warred inside my head. Loyalty to my only brother kept my feet from moving.

“I’ll be good with the pack,” Asher said, then swallowed.

“You will be.” I glanced around the group of werewolves. “I’ll come check on you often.”

He straightened his slouching shoulders. “Don’t worry about me. Go get your woman. ”

I drew him into a hug. “Be safe out here. The warlock is evil. The vampires not so much but they are killers of our kind.”

With those parting words, I left my brother to return to the woman I loved. The one I wanted as my mate. The one who’d bitten me and now I was about to bite her.