Abandoned Darkness Read online

  Abandoned Darkness

  A

  Forest of Darkness

  Novel

  Kate Wendley

  Titles by Kate Wendley

  Forest of Darkness Novels and Novellas

  Untamed Darkness, Novella .5

  Mastering Darkness, Book 1

  Abandoned Darkness, Book 2

  Resisting Darkness, Book 3

  Shifting Darkness, Book 4

  Abandoned Darkness

  A Forest of Darkness Novel

  Copyright copyright 2016 by Kate Wendley

  Cover by Damonza

  Moonlight Magic Publishing

  ISBN: 978-1-944538-04-0

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any manner whatsoever.

  Chapter 1

  Jade secretly gawked at the man of her dreams, and sometimes even her nightmares, as he bussed dishes across the small restaurant from her. Sebastian’s muscles were tight and compact, his t-shirt snug around his biceps and shoulders, his entire body looking fit and muscular and oh so yummy. Used napkins, dirty coffee cups, and plates with leftover scraps of food all became incredibly sexy in his dangerously powerful hands before he swiftly deposited them in the plastic tub at his side. She’d love to go hand him her dirty dishes just to know that he’d touched them.

  Instead she imagined him sitting across from her at their favorite coffee shop downtown, stirring honey into his organic tea and playfully reminding her yet again of all the reasons he loved her. It was a sunny afternoon, life was perfect, he was perfect, and she was the happiest she’d ever been.

  In real life, those beautiful brown eyes glanced her direction and she immediately looked away from the Alpha Wolf. She anxiously grabbed her water and took a sip, then swallowed it down the wrong pipe and had a coughing fit. Lovely. She snuck a quick glance in his direction again just as he was looking away, thankful that lowly ole’ her was pretty much invisible to him.

  She spied on him a little longer, just enough time for him to pick up the tub of dirty dishes and swivel around to head back to the kitchen. She enjoyed the view of his excellent rear end as he strode through the swinging door, then reluctantly grabbed her things and headed upstairs to her own place.

  She had three floors to fantasize about her totally dangerous, off limits, gorgeous crush. She imagined them teasing each other at home after they’d both had a long day at work. When they eventually wore themselves out with the sexy stuff, they’d snuggle up all cozy and cute to watch their favorite shows together, then head to bed for the night where they’d fall asleep in each other’s arms.

  Reality sunk in when she opened the door to her dark, empty apartment and flicked on the light.

  **

  Sebastian’s guts were turning inside out thinking about using his sickening mind reading power on Anthony’s new girlfriend. It was his unique job to read people that might be a danger to the family, and right now Kaia was at the top of that list. Anthony might not believe that though, which was an even bigger reason Sebastian needed to do it.

  Anthony was the Master Vampire of the Atlanta territory, Sebastian’s roommate for the last eight years, and one of his only two friends in the world. The last thing Sebastian wanted to do was find out something hurtful about his girlfriend, but Kaia was in Ethan’s family, and he was way too powerful to ignore. Ethan’s constant, intense hatred of Anthony put a little too much suspicion on Kaia and why she was actually dating his best friend.

  Sebastian didn’t want to find out anything malicious about her. He wanted to believe she was just an innocent, human woman who’d only recently learned about their world, but Anthony was too completely crazy for her. It made him worry his friend wouldn’t notice anything was wrong until it was too late.

  But Anthony wouldn’t be happy about him getting into her head, either. Not since she was still learning about the supernatural world all around her. She even got attacked by a vampire, only to have Anthony make her life miserable by ignoring her for a few weeks after that while he questioned what was really going on between them. They finally made up a few days ago, and now Anthony was the happiest Sebastian had ever seen him.

  He took a deep breath. Anthony was going to kick his ass for sure, no question about it. Shit. His stomach turned because he knew reading Kaia’s mind was the right thing to do, especially since Anthony hadn’t told him not to, which meant his friend’s head wasn’t in the game. It didn’t help that everyone hated it when Sebastian read them. He hated it, his victim hated it, and usually whoever his victim was hiding something from wasn’t too happy with what he found, either.

  Dammit.

  He sourly went back into the restaurant to see if Jade was still there. Fantasizing about her would help calm his nerves. She’d been his secret crush ever since he’d starting liking girls as a kid, and she’d grown even more beautiful and nice and sweet as she grew up and the years wore on. She was so far out of his league, though, it wasn’t even funny. She was like a goddess… graceful, gorgeous, and all around perfect.

  She had dark brown hair that complemented her green, faintly catlike eyes and heart shaped face. And her lips… he groaned in his head. She was a fantasy and always would be. He was nothing but brute force and a bad attitude, an Alpha Wolf in every way, and she was a down to earth, beautiful, delicate jaguar.

  Who showed up almost every night for dinner in the club. He smiled to himself as he swept through the swinging kitchen door, but his mood soured when he saw someone clearing her table. His thoughts turned darkly back to when would be the best time to ruin his friendship with Anthony and get the holy hell beat out of him all at the same, awesome time.

  Chapter 2

  It was full moon, the one night Jade hated with a passion each and every month. If she kept thinking about how mad she was that she had to go through with this shifting thing again, she could keep her mind off of how terrified it actually made her.

  Her skin itched as she rode with Tina and a couple of her friends out to the private ranch someone in the family owned. There were actually a gazillion forested areas all around northern Georgia that they could run around in, but since regular humans didn’t know shapeshifters even existed, and since it’d been drilled into their heads since the beginning of time that they needed to keep it that way, most everyone went to the ranch because it was just easier.

  Once it got dark, the vampires in the family even came out to help watch over everyone, including making sure no regular humans stumbled across them, or if they did, the vampires made sure they forgot what they saw. Truth be told, she was as scared of vampires as she was of other shifters, but at least vampires didn’t blank out once a month and turn into uncontrollable beasts.

  A lot of shifters couldn’t wait for full moon nights. Stronger shifters could change into their animal more than just at full moon, but tonight absolutely everyone who could shift was out here. That meant everyone got to be as wild and crazy as they wanted to be, mostly. She wasn’t one of the stronger ones in the family, and after being hurt either during her shift, or waking up with claw marks and bruises that she didn’t remember getting, she was always scared to be too close to others. Even her own family. Especially her own family.

  Her favorite uncle had hurt her once when she was a teenager and just learning how to shift properly. He’d started shifting in front of her, then got too rough as she was still going through her own painful shift.

  He didn’t remember an
y of it. Neither had her brother the time he got too careless with her. They were just rough housing and fooling around, but she wasn’t was as strong as them, and dammit it hurt.

  It was worse that it was her own family. How could she be mad at them, especially since it wasn’t even their fault? Their animals weren’t them. Their animals were wild creatures that had no idea they were actually human beings.

  She looked out the window as they turned off the road. Since there was no way to stop her monthly nightmare from happening, she was grudgingly here, thankful at least to get a ride so she didn’t have to focus on driving while she was so anxious and panicky.

  They finally parked in one of the dirt lots and Tina and the others left her to go catch up with the wolves and coyotes. Most shifters liked to be deep in the woods so that once they shifted they were that much closer to potential prey. She liked being left behind, alone except for the vampires that would eventually be out here with her.

  There weren’t many jaguars in the family, or anywhere in the Atlanta area for that matter. And a lot of them didn’t run together, mostly because the cats were loners or just had really small families. After being hurt enough times, Jade decided pretty early on that she wouldn’t run with her family anymore. And it wasn’t just the more powerful men that scared her, it was also herself. What if she ever accidentally hurt her mom? And her dad was getting older every day. How would she live with herself if her cat got too wild and did something bad to them?

  So she shifted alone. She preferred that for other reasons, too. Watching someone shift into an animal was disgusting and painful to look at. It was even worse when you knew you’d have to go through it, too, and with that horrific mental image of your body unnaturally changing shape stuck right there in your brain. She’d had nightmares about half shifted people many, many times. Mostly when she was younger, but once in a while they still bothered her.

  She walked a good ten minutes before she reluctantly picked a place to shift. She angrily sniffed the air, something she hated doing because it reminded her that she wasn’t completely human, but was relieved when she didn’t smell anyone close by.

  The big, beautiful full moon taunted her as she tried to dull her mind to what was coming. It wasn’t the moon’s fault she was what she was, but its relentless monthly return to the night sky was like a militant order she could never ignore. For a time, after she’d first started shifting as a teenager, she’d hated the night. She’d gotten over her hatred since then, but she still preferred the day.

  She awkwardly took her clothes off, uselessly fumbling with her modesty as she tried to stay covered under a blanket. The neon pink and green flower design looked ridiculous out here, but the bright colors would make it easier to spot in the morning.

  After putting her clothes in a neat pile nearby, she huddled under the blanket’s warmth, her muscles already anxiously twitching. She wanted to get the painful part over quickly, so she focused as hard as she could on the link inside her that was her cat. Anger took hold as she tried to force the link open, wishing just once that the shift would happen quickly and painlessly.

  She gasped when her animal finally took control, her muscles twitching with more and more oomph. Twitches turned into all out muscle spasms that forced her to her knees. She stretched her body back and forth to try and alleviate the growing discomfort, but it only got worse instead of better. That wasn’t a surprise. She didn’t know why she kept fantasizing that one day she’d be rid of this curse.

  Her mood soured even more when her muscles began changing shape. Her arms and legs bulked up and she tried her hardest not to whimper in desperation for this to please not be happening again.

  She rocked back and forth in a still futile attempt to ease the growing pain. Her hands ached as they swelled to the size of meaty paws, golden fur with dark spots quickly sprouting absolutely everywhere. Her vision sharpened and she tried not to think about what her eyes must look like. This wasn’t the real her, this was a different person. It was just a crazy dream that she’d wake up from tomorrow and feel like she had a hangover for a day.

  Tears came to her eyes when her face started to hurt. Her nose flattened out and her skull became wider and longer, her muzzle forming through popping and bone crunching sounds that made her want to throw up. This was the really horrible body changing stuff that always made her wish there was a cure out there somewhere, as if it really was just a fairy tale curse rather than a fact of life for shapeshifters everywhere.

  Her neck thickened and her heart frantically pounded. This wasn’t her. She wasn’t an animal, she was a person! But as her trunk transformed and she felt her tail grow long, reluctantly swishing it about to find her balance, she cried as the change finally took over every inch of her body. Her human thoughts vanished as if she’d never existed, and her cat shook off the feel of prickly, unused magic, growled, then cautiously snuck off into the dark forest.

  **

  Sebastian rode to the ranch with Zach. They picked up a couple other jaguars on the way, though they were nervous in the back seat, no doubt because Sebastian was here. He never talked to anyone that Zach invited to ride along on full moon nights. They never talked to him, either, which was how it was at home, too. Whatever.

  Once at the ranch, where there were already tons of cars, they all hopped out, took off their shoes and socks, though Sebastian always wore flip flops, and left any other small items in the truck before they headed deeper into the woods.

  The other two guys immediately scattered and Sebastian couldn’t help curling his lip at them as they ran off. He was sick of people’s disgust of him.

  Zach smacked him in the arm and took off jogging in the direction of their usual shifting spot. Sebastian’s mood reluctantly lightened as he followed.

  By the time he caught up, Zach had already stripped and started shifting. Sebastian chuckled and flung his shirt off, not surprised at all that Zach was fully cat before Sebastian’s shirt even hit the ground. He gave Sebastian what passed for a jaguar’s shit eating grin before sprinting away. He liked to show off his incredibly fast shifting skills, something no one in the family could top, at least as far as they knew, but Sebastian was fine with his own shift taking more time.

  After stripping out of the rest of his clothes, he got on his knees and dug his hands into the earth. He liked coming out here. He liked the feel of being out in nature, mostly because he could be himself here.

  This was his safe place when he’d first gained his mind reading power, back when no one would go near him. When he couldn’t control his ‘gift’. Skin to skin contact was all it took for him to read someone’s mind, and accidental touches earned him a lot of unwanted enemies. It took shockingly little time for him to become the unwilling outcast of their community.

  He tried to let his angry thoughts go because tonight was his favorite night of the month. He loved to streak through the forest as his wolf, chasing prey, hunting, killing… ripping into bones and muscles, reveling in all the blood…

  He grit his teeth as uncomfortable muscle spasms took over, though he actually enjoyed the pain. It helped clear his mind of worry and stress over things back home. Once he was his wolf he wouldn’t even think human thoughts anymore. He’d be completely free.

  When the bone crunching sounds of his shift died off and fur quickly covered his entire body, he shook out the last of his muscle spasms, then eagerly darted into the woods.

  Chapter 3

  Sebastian ran off a lot of his pent up tension a couple nights ago at full moon, but he still felt uneasy. Kaia had been here twice already, but Anthony kept her busy, alone in his room, both times. There was no way Sebastian was going to interrupt whatever they were doing in there just so he could introduce himself and force his way into her mind.

  The longer this got put off, though, the more horrible it was going to be for everyone involved. He just knew it. If only she had nothing to do with Ethan, this wouldn’t even be an issue, but Ethan pushed things w
ay too far with Anthony recently and it made them all worry about what was coming next.

  He kept rereading the same sentence over and over again on the email Oskar sent him with raise recommendations for the restaurant staff, all coyotes thank God, so he decided to just shut his computer down and go watch a little of the game. Hopefully it would take his mind off of reading minds.

  He hated his freak mutant power. It felt like a whole lot of emotional, psychoanalysis bullshit to him, and after a little over seven years of finally being able to control when he used it, he could actually lose a best friend over it. He was the wrong person to have manifested this curse.

  He wandered into the club from Anthony’s office, saw asshole Torin hanging out with his friends, and felt even more like shit.

  He wished Torin would let it go that he wasn’t alpha anymore. Sebastian liked to think that if Torin hadn’t pushed him away when he’d sought out his help and acceptance with his new freak power all those years ago, things could’ve turned out so much differently. Instead, Torin liked to continually find ways to make Sebastian’s life miserable. Since the rest of the pack wished Torin still was their alpha, they willingly went along with anything he wanted, including enthusiastically ostracizing Sebastian.

  He could maybe deal with their revulsion if he was only human, but it kept his wolf, and therefore him, in a near constant state of rage. He was always ready to attack anyone who dared fuck with him, which only made things worse. And now here he was, about to use his disgusting power on someone again, the very reason his pack hated him in the first place.

  He glumly went down the vampire hall to watch TV in peace and quiet. The security guys had a set back there so they didn’t get too bored during the day while they were supposed to be guarding sleeping vampires.

  His tension eased when he saw Zach already sitting there, one of two people in his entire world that didn’t treat him like he was diseased. He was totally engrossed in the game and didn’t even look up while he moved down a little further on the couch to give Sebastian room to join him.