Hunter’s Moon – werewolf romance book – chapter 2

To continue the celebration of my new release, here’s the second excerpt from Hunter’s Moon, my latest werewolf romance book / vampire romance book. This is a novel in the Vampires Realm series, but you don’t have to read the other books to understand what’s happening in this one. The books in the Vampires Realm are connected by world rather than story arc.

Hunter’s Moon
F E Heaton
Having witnessed vampires slaughtering his werewolf pack during their escape from the horror of the compound where they had been held captive, Nicolae’s hatred of the species burns deep in his veins. A century has passed since that night and the months in which he travelled to the Canadian wilderness to escape it, but the nightmarish visions and his failure as an alpha still haunt him, forcing him to live alone and keep his distance from other werewolves.

When a night hunt with the local timber wolf pack leads to a run-in with unfamiliar hunters, Nicolae tracks the scent of blood permeating the forest to an injured woman and races to save her, but has he made a terrible mistake in doing so? When she attacks him, revealing her true nature, he can’t believe his eyes or the fact that he can’t bring himself to kill her. She’s beautiful, and a vampire.

Tatyana is on a mission. Far from home and bearing a heart filled with grief, she’s intent on killing the hunters she’s tracking, but her plan didn’t include being shot with poisoned arrows. When she comes to in the presence of a glowering handsome male werewolf, she isn’t sure what to expect. His dark demeanour and cold tone warn her that he isn’t like the subservient werewolves she’s used to, and that she might not be out of danger yet, but she doesn’t let it discourage her. Working with him to discover why the hunters have come to Canada, she attempts to shatter his antiquated opinion of vampires, but the closer she gets to him, the harder it becomes to battle the forbidden hunger he stirs in her.

Will Nicolae be able to overcome the darkness in his heart and his memories, and embrace his desire for a vampire? Can Tatyana face her fear about the Law Keepers and risk her heart and her life for the sake of forbidden love? When they discover what the hunters are after, will they be able to stop them before it’s too late?

ebook price: $2.99
genre: paranormal werewolf romance
length: 65000 words
rating: sultry
released: February 2011
Book 9 in the Vampires Realm series

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Hunter’s%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Excerpt
Nicolae set the woman down on the bed in the corner of his small cabin and went to the fire next to it. He threw some logs onto the dwindling flames, took an iron from the rack, and stoked it, knocking the ash down into the grate. Every muscle in his body ached as he moved, stiff with cold. The flames burned more brightly, warming his bare shins and his hands.

He glanced at the vampire and then stared into the fire. What had he been thinking? Even if he could save her, she wasn’t likely to share information with him. Vampires didn’t like werewolves prying into their business. He had learnt that the hard way, with lashings and beatings that had left him numb to anything other than pain.

He shrugged those memories away and focused on the fire. She was dredging up things that he wished he had forgotten long ago. Focus on the small things. It helped him most at times when he couldn’t control the onslaught of images. Small things were a distraction. They kept his hands busy while his mind sorted itself out.

The fire crackled and popped as the flames greedily devoured the logs he had placed onto it. He prodded them with the iron, turning them so they caught on all sides, waiting for calm to fill him again. Warmth stole through his body, the fire chasing the cold from it, and a sense of peace followed. He placed the iron back in the rack of tools beside the fire.

Near to the vampire.

Nicolae moved it to the other side of the fireplace, away from her, just in case she woke in a bad mood. It wasn’t the first time he had seen a vampire close to death. Experience made him wary. They were unpredictable and savage when dying. Their survival instinct made them deadlier than they were under normal circumstances.

He didn’t fancy being skewered by a fire iron. It would be one hell of an ending to what was turning out to be a bad night.

His gaze shifted to the short arrows still protruding from her body. Would she resort to using them to defend herself? He had wanted to wait until they were safe in his cabin before removing them but now he wondered if it had been a wise decision. The shock to her body would rouse her and the main room was small. It would be difficult to evade any attack she made. He frowned. Unless he added a certain herb to the medicine to knock her out. It had been a long time since he had made such a drug, but most of the ingredients grew in the woods on the mountain, and others were probably in his store cupboard. It was amazing what simple herbs could become, and how much they could affect a vampire.

Or a werewolf.

The same single herb would knock him out cold too. He had used it before, to escape the hell of his past and give himself peace and a dreamless sleep. It worked far better than the alcohol he had tried before it.

Nicolae went and stood over her. His palms sweated and he flexed his fingers to ease the tension building inside him. He hesitated and then leaned down and placed his hand on her forehead. Still cold. Good. He had time to create the drug.

His gaze flickered to the arrows. She was going to bleed badly when he removed them.

Her hand clamped down on his arm. She yanked on it, causing him to stumble onto the bed, and sprung at him. Her canines sunk into his left shoulder near his neck and sharp claws seized his other arm. Pain blazed outwards from the point where her fangs penetrated his flesh and he growled when she gave a sharp pull on his blood.

A split second later, she recoiled and snarled, backing into the corner of the bed furthest from him.

Nicolae’s hand flew to his shoulder, covering the wound, and he was at the other end of the tattered brown couch in front of the fire before she could attack again. Blood pulsed through his fingers, warm and filling the small room with the heavy scent.

She growled, exposing long bloodied fangs, and swiped at the air in his direction.

Nicolae pinned her with a cold glare. His neck ached, sending deep throbbing waves of pain through him, and he applied more pressure to the wound. Anger coiled tight in his stomach. Strangely, the emotion wasn’t in response to what she had done. It was aimed at himself. He was stupid for letting her get to him, for allowing his guard to slip around a vampire for even a fraction of a moment. He knew better than that.

The woman looked down at herself and her orange eyes narrowed on the darts. She growled again. Nicolae reached for her but wasn’t fast enough. She tore the bolt from her chest and roared. The agony in her cry echoed on her pale face. It contorted as she tipped her head back, her fangs bared and eyes screwed shut. He backed off again when she snarled in his direction and dropped the arrow onto the bed. She wavered, her lids drooping, and clawed at the wound, bloodying her fingers. It had been foolish of her to remove the bolt. Her heart might not beat but she could still die from blood loss. The arrow had been stopping the wound from bleeding.

Blood slid down her jacket, soaking into the black material and sticking it to her skin.

She eyed the second dart.

Nicolae shook his head, his heart pounding at the thought she might try to remove it too. She was breathing. A clear indication that she was younger than he was. Most vampires over the age of two hundred overcame their instinct to breathe. If she was younger than one hundred, the combination of blood loss and poison could easily kill her before noon.

Her orange gaze lit on him, briefly scanning his face before falling to his hand where it covered the bite mark on his left shoulder. She looked away, casting her eyes downwards, her blonde hair falling to cover one side of her pale face.

Her move irked him.

Was she disgusted by the fact she had bitten him? She had recoiled the moment she had tasted his blood.

The moment she had realised what he was.

Well, it sickened him too. He was disgusted at himself for letting it happen and disgusted by her reaction.

She snarled when he moved a step closer.

He ignored her. She had caught him off guard and it wouldn’t happen again. If she attempted another attack, he wouldn’t hold back. She wasn’t strong enough to fight him. He would have her unconscious before she could touch him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” It was difficult to keep the sharp edge of anger from his voice when his shoulder was burning. She glared at him, eyes narrowed and full of fire. He tamped down his emotions, struggling against their surging tide within him, and managed to soften his tone. “Why are there hunters after you?”

She growled the moment he mentioned them. Her gaze darted around, taking in everything and then fixing on him again. She huddled into the corner and bore her fangs.

It was pointless trying to question her when she was like this.

She wavered again, slumping against the wooden logs of the cabin wall and breathing hard. Her face screwed up and she whimpered. Nicolae had never heard such a pathetic sound, not in all his years in the compound or after. Her breathing quickened and she reached for the dart puncturing her stomach.

Her fingers closed around it.

“No.” Nicolae dashed forwards, his hand outstretched.

The vampire snarled, her expression full of fury and darkness, and he backed off again when she released the dart. Her fingers shook. Anguish shone in her eyes. She yelled and banged her head against the log wall, hard enough that the structure trembled. Nicolae lunged for her, catching her right arm, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop her. Her head hit the wall again.

She collapsed into his arms, her forehead against his cheek, as still as a corpse.

Only corpses didn’t have body heat.

And neither did vampires normally.

Nicolae touched her face. Her fevered skin explained why she had taken such desperate measures.

The poison was killing her.

She had wanted to end her suffering.

Given the choice between a slow painful death as poison destroyed him and he bled to death or being blissfully unaware of his end, he would choose to knock himself out too.

Nicolae laid her down again, careful to avoid disturbing the remaining crossbow bolt. The lengths of her blonde hair stuck to the beads of sweat on her face and spilled over her shoulders. He picked up the bolt she had removed and sniffed it. It still smelt like the drug that hunters in Europe often used on her kind. He rested his palm on her forehead. She was burning up. It wouldn’t be long before the poison killed her. He had to move swiftly if he wanted to get answers to his questions.

If he wanted to save her.

He paused, looking down at her peaceful face. She looked so small and vulnerable, and felt so weak on his senses. It all spoke to him, coaxing a response that he hadn’t anticipated. He really did want to help her. He wanted to help a vampire, and he had the terrible feeling that it had nothing to do with information. He wanted to stop her from suffering.

He went into the small kitchen, turned on the single naked light, grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans off the pile of washing and slipped them on. Blood eased down his chest from his throat. He washed the dirt off his hands in the sink and then the blood off his chest and throat, dried himself with a tea-towel, and then took the medical kit down from one of two wooden wall cupboards. He didn’t have a single sticking plaster large enough to cover the wound so he covered each puncture mark with a separate plaster. The wounds would bleed through. He checked how many plasters he had left in the box. Enough to last until the bite started to heal. It could take days. Vampire bites were a bitch.

Nicolae smiled grimly, briefly picturing returning the favour and biting her. Werewolf saliva was a pain to vampires, making his bite far worse than hers was. She would take weeks to heal if it got into her system. He shook the image away and focused back on healing her. She was already on the brink of death. Biting her would tip her over it.

The store cupboard near the back door of the cabin produced most of the herbs he needed to make the medicine that would cleanse her body of the poison. There was one vital ingredient missing. He opened the back door and stopped on the porch when he found himself face to face with the grey alpha timber wolf.

The wolf’s yellow eyes held his.

Silent communication passed between them through a connection he had forged with blood.

“No. She isn’t human.” Nicolae closed the door behind him. He strode barefoot into the woods, his gaze scouring the ground for the remaining herb.

The wolf kept pace with him. Nicolae glanced at him, stopped and nodded.

“I know what I said. That was a long time ago.” He sighed when the wolf looked up at him, and crouched so he was level with it. It was best to face such questions in this way. He never liked to look down on the alpha. The wolf was king here. “I’ll find the hunters. They won’t harm the pack. She won’t harm the pack. Vampires are not interested in animal blood.”

The alpha snarled.

Nicolae felt his reservation deep in his own blood.

“She won’t attack humans either. There won’t be a chance for the humans to mistake her marks for a wolf attack. The pack will be safe. I’ve always kept my word, haven’t I?”

The alpha huffed and looked skyward. The full moon shone down on them both, instilling a sense of peace in Nicolae as the rays caressed his skin. Long fingers of silver-lined clouds drifted below it, stretching across the horizon, and the snow on the distant mountain peaks shone ice-blue in the clear light. The scenery was beautiful and never failed to soothe him on nights like this, and he had never needed its calming effect more than he did now.

It offered him respite from the storm of his emotions, a balm that eased the darkness from his heart and cleared his mind of the insidious words whispered by his lingering desire for revenge.

His problem was with the Tenebrae, not the Nocens. No matter how much the presence of a vampire in his cabin, in his life, angered him, he would remember that it was not her kind he sought revenge against, but that of a bloodline who was likely also her enemy. The European bloodlines had often feuded in the time he had lived there, fighting for power amongst themselves. It was possibly still the case now. Vampires never learned. Never evolved. They remained constant—aggressive, vicious, cruel, and heartless.

He would see that when she woke, and it would clear away the strange sense of concern he felt towards her. Once she had answered his questions and was back on her feet, she was gone and out of his life.

Nicolae held his hand out. The grey wolf nuzzled it and then trotted into the woods. It looked back at him from the fringe of trees.

Nicolae nodded. “I have not forgotten.”

He watched the alpha go. Had he come all this way just to ensure that Nicolae wouldn’t forget their bargain, or had he truly been concerned about the woman?

He found the herb near a thicket of saplings he had planted last year. Small and black, it looked like nothing more than a dark variety of clover. He had always found it odd that such an inconspicuous plant could knock something as powerful as a vampire or werewolf out cold. It was this herb alone that would do such a thing. The rest were to stop the poison and help her heal. He picked some and took it back to the cabin.

His mind wandered as his fingers made quick work of measuring out the herbs on the kitchen counter. He paused to touch the plasters on his throat. What was she doing here? A pure European vampire outside their home continent was virtually unheard of. They never left it except for rare times when they were visiting another bloodline, and that couldn’t be the case this time because there were no vampires in these parts.

That was exactly the reason he had chosen to come here.

And it was exactly the reason he hadn’t suspected she was a vampire until she had attacked him.

It had shocked him.

He hadn’t seen a vampire since escaping Europe.

Nicolae placed half of the herbs and a small amount of water into a pan and heated them on the stove. He took two squares of muslin and made a poultice with the remaining mixture, folding them neatly so none of the contents would spill out. The brew in the pan didn’t take long to come to a boil. He turned it down, letting it simmer.

The liquid gradually turned black. He took the pan off the heat to cool. A faint smile curved his lips as he remembered learning how to make the medicine. He had always been good at making remedies and antidotes from plants. His sire, the previous alpha of his pack, had taught him everything he knew. Over the years, Nicolae had honed his skills and passed the knowledge on to others. The local werewolf pack was one of them. It was easier to treat injuries or ailments themselves rather than relying on human doctors and risking exposing their kind. While their bodies were closer to a human’s than a vampire’s was, they were still different enough that a doctor might notice, especially when it came to their blood. Just like the vampires, werewolf DNA mutated during their turning. While their blood would appear similar to human blood under a microscope, laboratory tests would reveal a startling difference.

Nicolae stared at the liquid and then dipped his finger in to test the temperature. Warm and cooling fast.

How many times had he made similar remedies for his pack? Never in his life had he thought he would end up using his skills to help a vampire.

He poured half of the liquid out into a shot glass, placed the two poultices on a plate, and tipped the rest over them. He hadn’t made much and for good reason. The dose had to be small and strong. Vampires couldn’t ingest solids or most liquids other than blood. She could react badly if he gave her too much. A single potent dose would have to do.

Nicolae placed everything onto a tray, picked up the medical kit, and carried them both through into the main room of his cabin. He set the tray on a small coffee table next to the worn couch and put the medical kit down beside the bed. She hadn’t stirred. She lay straight as a rod on the dark bedcovers, her face ashen but beaded with sweat. The only hint of colour on her lips was his blood.

He nudged her leg with his bare foot.

She didn’t wake.

Picking up the shot glass from the tray, Nicolae stared at the black liquid that filled it close to the brim and then at her. This was not going to go down well.

He knelt with his right knee on the bed and his left foot on the floor, and checked that his footing was sure so he could brace himself if he needed to. She still didn’t wake. With his heart in his throat, he carefully lifted her head off the bed with his left hand and cradled her. Nothing. His heart trembled. He sighed out his breath and wet his lips at the same time as he brought the shot glass to her mouth. He tipped it enough that a single drop of liquid touched her lips and slipped inside.

She jerked awake, retched and then coughed violently. Nicolae evaded her first swipe but the second caught him across his right shoulder, almost knocking the glass out of his hand. He tensed and held his breath, taking another hit as he tried to avoid spilling the precious liquid. His patience snapped and he snarled, grabbed her shoulder with his left hand and slammed her down onto the bed. He pinned her there with his full weight. She wasn’t strong enough to fight him but she struggled regardless, thrashing around on the bed and hissing at him.

“It will stop the poison.”

She stilled. The wild edge to her amber eyes gave way to awareness. They flickered to the glass. She slowly opened her mouth.

Nicolae stared at the tips of her fangs and swallowed. If she was doing this just to lure him into getting close to her so she could bite him again, he was going to knock her out the old-fashioned way—with his fist. He edged the glass towards her, cautious now, his gaze constantly monitoring her for a sign that she was going to attack.

She didn’t.

The glass reached her lips. He tilted it and tipped the entire contents into her mouth. She grimaced, looked as though she was going to throw it up, and then swallowed. A second later, she shuddered and relaxed beneath him.

Nicolae waited.

When his heart had calmed and his senses no longer screamed danger, he took his left hand and lifted her right eyelid. Black greeted him. No trace of colour or white remained.

He blew out a long sigh and sat back on his leg, staring at her. His broad shoulders slumped and he lowered the glass to rest on his knee. The drug would keep her under for hours in her condition. Without fear or an ounce of care, he took hold of the arrow in her stomach and yanked it out. He tossed it away to join the other one on the floor. Her black jacket and shirt followed it. Blood stained her torso. He went to the kitchen, filled a bowl with water, grabbed a cloth and came back to her. He cleaned around the arrow wounds and left the rest of the blood. She could wash up when she regained her strength. He eyed her black bra. He wasn’t about to remove that and he’d have to in order to clean her.

Nicolae ran a hand over his messy dark hair and sighed again. What was he doing? Helping a vampire. He shook his head at the thought, let alone the reality. She wasn’t that bloodline though, and she had information. It had to be done. Regardless of how he had felt earlier, this wasn’t about helping her. This was about protecting his life here and the local wolves. When the hunters were gone, then so was she, and she could go to Hell for all he cared.

He applied a poultice to each wound, rubbing it over her skin to clean any poison away and then pressing down so the liquid seeped into the holes. It was a struggle to bind the wounds when she was lying down. He bound her waist first, raising her off the bed each time he needed to pass the bandage underneath her, and pinned the end of it in place. Her shoulder was more difficult. He slipped the strap of her black bra off over her arm and then bound the wound as best he could, keeping his eyes off her breasts. When he was done, he put the bra strap back in place on her shoulder and then checked both of the bandages were tight enough. Her fevered skin was damp beneath his fingers and it was difficult to remember that she was a vampire. She was so soft. How long had it been since he had touched a woman?

Nicolae reminded himself that she wasn’t a woman.

Vampire.

He would do well to remember that.

His gaze crept up over her torso, skimming slowly across her breasts to her face. Waves of her blonde hair cut across it, wild and beautiful.

Not beautiful.

Vampire.

He brushed the hair from her face, following the strands down to the ends where they were stained crimson, and then stopped himself. What the hell was he doing?

Nicolae tossed everything back onto the tray and carried it into the kitchen. He slammed the tray down on the counter and then gripped the edge of it and stared out of the small dirty window at the dark clearing. The alpha was right. This woman didn’t belong here. He needed to get her away from him as soon as possible. He should have left her in the woods.

He pushed away from the kitchen counter and rubbed his hand across his face as he paced the cramped room, the tiles freezing beneath his feet. It took barely two strides to reach the other end. Not enough distance to clear his head. The cabin felt too confined, suffocating him.

Nicolae yanked the back door open, quickly took the steps down from the porch, and stopped when he reached the dirt. The feel of it beneath his feet, cold and hard, was nothing like the feeling it evoked in him. He felt calm and warm, soothed by the earth and the scent of nature in his lungs. He took a long slow breath and scrunched the dirt with his toes. It grounded him.

A desire to run in the woods swept up inside him.

He paced the clearing instead, letting nature flow through him, giving him some peace and respite.

He needed to get rid of the vampire but he couldn’t until she had healed. It could take days for her to regain enough strength. Unless she drank blood. She would heal more quickly with fresh blood in her body.

Nicolae touched the claw marks that cut across the right side of his chest. They were already starting to heal. He had no blood to offer but his own and she had made it clear she didn’t want that.

He would never give it to her anyway.

He tipped his head back and stared at the indigo sky above the trees. There would be blood in the local hospital. The thought of taking from them turned his stomach. They had been good to him in the small town down in the valley and winter was coming. It was a dangerous time of year, when snow isolated the area and accidents were commonplace. They would need all the blood they had. He couldn’t take from their precious supplies.

Nicolae went back into the main room of the cabin, his gaze coming to rest on the vampire. He had to. He didn’t have a choice. She wasn’t like him. Animal blood wouldn’t do her any good right now. It had to be human, or close to human, if it was going to replenish what she had lost. The local werewolf pack wouldn’t help. Even if they did, she would probably reject the blood because of its taste.

He sat on the arm of the couch and stared at her in silence. Minutes passed, ticking away, and he didn’t move. His thoughts leapt back and forth between getting her blood and leaving her to heal without it, a constant war in his mind that only ended when he felt the sun rising. He lifted his head and looked at the wall above the fireplace, sensing beyond it to the lightening world outside.

He rubbed his face again, scratching the dark stubble that lined his jaw, muttered a curse, and went into the kitchen. He tugged on a white t-shirt, a thick black button down shirt and a warm pair of socks. He was still debating whether he was really going to go through with it when he was jamming his feet into his black boots. It was one thing helping her heal, completely another to steal for her, especially from people he knew and cared about.

“Damn it.” Nicolae grabbed the keys to his Jeep and left the cabin, locking the door behind him in case she woke when he was gone.

Or someone came knocking.

The hunters were still out there.

Instinct told him they would meet again.

Sooner rather than later.

Available from:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Hunter’s%20Moon
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5NQ0W/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004P5NQ0W/

Stay tuned for a third and fourth excerpt from Hunter’s Moon…

About Felicity Heaton

I'm a NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In my books I create detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will love my books too.

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