Bleeding Hearts Read online

  “Unbelievably good.” Doll muttered flexing and curling her hands against her jeans thighs quickly. “I don’t know how werewolves get through this.”

  “You’re doing fine.” Luke said frowning and looking at her. Most beta werewolves he knew were not so sensitive to the lunar week that they verged on the most full blow of their behaviour and hormones less than two hours into the first night of the lunar week. “But it is unusual that you’re so affected on the first night Doll. How do you feel?” Luke asked with concern.

  “Hot all over, tingly and like the smell of anything male and wolf is just going to make me itch if I don’t bite into it sometime soon.” Doll replied stretching her legs out straight and reaching for her toes. “I got do something, this being still thing, is not working at all.”

  “Being still thing?”

  The problem with lunar week was for all it’s looks of joy and celebration and sexual liberation, there was a down side. And that downside was that werewolves felt everything ten times more than normal, the good and the bad. In both human form and werewolf form. Of course, their tribal form was designed of tough biology that would withstand a great deal, such was the nature of their beasts lineage. The human side, not so much.

  “I’ve tried meditating before, trying to calm myself down, it worked once, I think. But not anymore.”

  Luke reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Jesus, Doll you’re burning a fever.”

  “Body temp goes up a bit during lunar week, right?”

  Luke pulled his hand away. “Not like this. Are you in heat?”

  Doll shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Ever since I haven’t been wracked with the pain of silver constantly streaming into me on a lunar week, it’s been like this. I don’t remember much of what it was like before the captivity.”

  “The silver, it’s somehow thrown off your werewolf biorhythms or something. You’re probably extra sensitive to it now. It’s not uncommon for a werewolf with prolonged exposure to silver to have difficulties with their werewolf abilities.”

  Doll snorted. “Abilities. What abilities?” She snorted picking up her wine glass and sculling a mouth full of wine quickly. If she’d abilities, she wouldn’t have been held captive a year in a basement, feeling the moon calling her body and her body fighting it. Her own body fighting against her, hurting her as much as those that held her captive.

  Luke’s hand slipped around her wrist till his hand was in hers. He stood up “I know what to do.” Luke said pulling Doll up to her feet with him.

  “What do we, I mean, I do?” She asked softly looking into Luke’s eyes. He blinked to werewolf eyes on her in a second. Doll sighed and moved into his body as he slipped his hand around her waist.

  “We dance.” He muttered softly enjoying the softening of her body curving to his and into a relaxed dance hold with him.

  “Dance.” Doll repeated looking back at him, a half smile on her face, as they began to move away from the coffee table.

  “Just like this.” Luke muttered softly as they swayed together slowly in a perfect unison of movement. “You picked a really good radio station.”

  Doll smiled widely at the praise. “I’d never have picked you for the guy who likes old show tunes from romance movies of the forties and fifties. How very retro of you.”

  “The music is pretty cool.”

  “The coolest.” Doll laughed lightly as they continued to slow dance together. She felt her temperature beak. She no longer felt like she was baking from the inside out heavily. “I used to love watching those black and white movies of the dapper gentleman on some hair-brained scheme taking on the free spirited woman. Classic romance.”

  Luke looked down at her as she slowly rested her head against his shoulder and kept moving. “Maybe you related to it on some level.” He commented.

  She pulled back and looked back up at him. “I doubt it do I come across as a free spirit to you, full of gumption and attitude?” Luke laughed at her. Of course she did, how could she not see that within herself? “Are you laughing at me Luke Charleston?”

  “You just used the word gumption. You don’t think that’s funny?” He smiled brighter at her as they swayed in time to the music, until Doll burst out laughing back at him.

  “Oh help me.” She muttered still laughing at herself. Burying her head back against his shoulder and calming down again as they danced on.

  “You laughter sounds like a little bit of magic, Doll. You should make the sound more often.” Luke said softly looking at the top of her head against him.

  “Haven’t had much reason to laugh for awhile.”

  It occurred to him to ask her “How long since you got away from the Alpha Pack?” He knew without a doubt that she had escaped, because if a pack of alpha werewolves had been enjoying doing any manner of sadistic things to her for a year, they wouldn’t just let her go. They’d use her till they couldn’t use her anymore. Or they’d kill her when they got bored with her.

  “Ten weeks.” Doll replied keeping her head turned out away from having to look at him, her cheek resting against his chest.

  Luke tightened his hand on top of hers, feeling the shake in it and her arm, as they continued to move. “Just over two months?” Luke reiterated, as her arm stopped shaking again.

  “I think you’re looking for the word, escaped.” She said in a shaky voice, remaining against his shirt. She didn’t want to think about the Alpha Pack when she was so comfortable being against Luke. When she felt like romance was possible, life was possible, that she was possible, all from a little living room dance.

  “How did you escape?”

  Doll looked at his hand on hers. Touch was probably a good idea, it might help re-familiarise her werewolf self. What had that Alpha pack done to her, to mess up her werewolf senses so much?

  “Doll?” He asked softly. “Tell me how you escaped baby.”

  Doll closed her eyes and let the swaying motion of their dance comfort her. “We had an opportunity, just the once, one of the alpha’s messed up. They were usually very careful, very routine like in how they kept us leashed.” She paused her eyes opening again. Luke made her feel strong talking about what had happened. How was that possible?

  She lifted her head to look up at him. “I kept trying to figure out ways to escape. But I never could, they were so methodical in our imprisonment. After awhile I stopped trying to work out how to get out of there. I figured there was no escape, that I was destined to be trapped there until they killed me or my body gave out on me. They were just killing me slowly, slowly not softly.”

  Doll sighed and looked away from him, intently at his shirt “But my body, it wouldn’t’ die, it wouldn’t quit on me. And so I stayed in hell. Then I figured, maybe I could play them against each other, win one of them over. Alpha’s have tendencies that beta wolves don’t. They’re higher strung, bigger egos. “

  “That’s a smart play.” Luke commented as the smells of Italian food wafted through the house. Doll’s nose twitched and she turned her head to the kitchen area. “So you picked you’re target and then what?” Luke asked getting Doll’s attention again. Her eyes travelled up his face to hold his gaze.

  His cell phone rang loudly and he sighed letting go of one of her hands and grabbing it from is pocket and looking at the screen while she waited for him. It was his brother Dillon. He sighed. Dillon on the first night of lunar week. One guess as to what he wanted to do. But Luke wasn’t even remotely interested in hitting the clubs for a werewolf to mate with during the week. “Sorry,” He muttered switching the cell to silent mode and pocketing it. “Continue.” He urged Doll on, going to grab her hand again.

  But Doll broke away and picked up her wine glass instead “I basically tried to get him to think of me as his, and his only. That he owned me, that I was rightfully his, and not the others.” Luke stiffened as he listened to her words. He hated that she’d been forced to think like she was nothing but useable to those wolves.

  “
And when an opportunity presented. I took advantage of it.” She said pulling her other hand out of his. “I got Jeremy and me out of there.” Doll sculled the rest of her wine and looked away from Luke. It had been about survival, her and Jeremy or the Alpha Pack. But she still didn’t feel right about it. “I killed one of them.”

  “Good for you.” Luke slipped an arm around her waist again, wanting to resume the intimacy they’d created before he’d derailed it by his need to know what had happened to her. Luke looked down at Doll, with his human, brown eyes again and dipped his head as she tilted her face up to his. Her eyes bright with need, something clutched at Luke’s insides when he saw her look.

  Jeremy walked out of the kitchen with three plates of food for them. He stopped and looked at Doll and Luke who paused and looked across at him, before breaking apart. Doll moved and slid to the floor before the coffee table as Jeremy placed the plates on the table before dropping to his knees and crawling over to sit beside Doll. Sitting on the floor, with his head and side resting against her legs. She dropped a hand to absently run her hand through his hair.

  “That smells incredible.” Doll said breaking the silence between the three of them as she straightened up.

  Luke’s cell phone vibrated loudly in against him and he glanced at the screen. Dillon again. It could be pack business he surmised. But it couldn’t wait for once.

  He looked over at Doll and Jeremy. They needed his attention as much as the pack did. He was building something there. He ignored his phone again, choosing to switch it off as he slid down on the floor next to Doll at the table. They all sat around the table and ate their meal in silence. Doll wondered why she felt calmer than she had in the past month sitting between the two werewolves either side of her.

  The meal filled Doll up and the touches, small ones from Luke seemed to keep her body calmer and more stable than it had felt since the last lunar week episode. She wondered if she had upset Luke somehow, his body language was stiff, even though his attitude seemed relaxed.

  It wasn’t until Jeremy wandered off to the bedroom and Doll stood to follow, that she realised why Luke’s body language was different to his verbal interaction with him. He let down his concentration when she said she was heading off to bed. And that was when she felt the slip of the calm, fall from her. Like a tingle leaving her entire body.

  Doll’s eyes narrowed on Luke automatically and she grabbed him by his t-shirt, ripping it as she shoved up against a wall suddenly. Luke went with the push. “What did you do to me, just now?” She seethed between gritted teeth. She knew he’d done something, she felt different again. Her body temperature returned with a vengeance and she felt shaky and jittery all over.

  “I just used my influence on your wolf, to keep it calm, so you wouldn’t be jumpy all night.” Luke replied honestly. He should have asked her, shouldn’t have put it on her without her permission. But he’d only intended to let a little of his influence seep out.

  “Influence?” She muttered.

  “It’s an alpha ability; we can…kind of briefly change emotions on weaker wolves as it were.” He hated telling her that. Because he didn’t see her as weak, far from it, after all she’d been through.

  Doll let go of his t-shirt then and he moved towards her. “Doll I just wanted to help you, get through lunar week. You shouldn’t have to suffer so badly. You’ve got four more days and nights to get through with your wolf and body’s synch being off.”

  She pressed her lips together. “You don’t own me. You don’t control me.”

  “Oh Doll no. I would never think that.” Luke said reaching for her. She looked down at his hands on her arms and shook out of them.

  “If I can’t trust you Luke, I can’t be around you.” She held his gaze and saw that he was genuinely sorry for what he’d done. But it was too late. What he’d done had rattled her. Just when she’d begun to believe she was safe. She turned around and opened the door to her and Jeremy’s bedroom and closed the door on him.

  Luke leaned back against the hallway wall and hit his head back against it. What the hell had he been thinking? In one move he’d probably just undone every bit of ground building he’d worked out with Doll. What the hell was wrong with him? He turned and walked into his own bedroom, closing the door behind it. He’d just never had such strong feelings for a female werewolf before. It was crazy that his wolf was singling her out to him, with an focus of intensity he’d never had before. He wanted to be there for her. Doll’s needs pushed at him and in return he pushed her, whilst trying to dial back his alpha tendencies so she wouldn’t hate him.

  Luke wondered not for the first time what the hell he was doing with Doll. The bedroom door opened again and Jeremy walked out closing the door behind him, he walked back over to Luke.

  “What is it Jeremy?”

  “I know you probably think I have no right to say this, since you’ve been so nice to us this far. Given us food, shelter, warmth and money. But I’m going to anyway.” Jeremy paused.

  “Go on.” Luke said forcing himself not to cross his arms over his chest and go into intimidation mode on the younger werewolf male.

  “Doll is special Luke. To me. You try anything on her, anything at all, like what you did tonight, no matter how insignificant you think it is, how trivial it might be to you. You do anything against her will and I will find a way to hurt you. I promise you that.” Jeremy said in a calm voice that seemed to indicate, just how much anger he really had over what had just happened. One of Luke’s brothers was like that. The calmer he got, the more pissed off he was. Until you didn’t even know how deeply you’d screwed up with him.

  “I might not be able to take you in a fight Luke, but believe me when I tell you, surviving as long as Doll and I have after what we were put through, takes smarts we are loaded with. You have no idea what we’re capable of when pushed.”

  “I understand.” Luke replied honestly. He didn’t want to downgrade Jeremy’s threat to him because the reality was, if push came to shove, he could completely see Jeremy going ape shit on him or anyone who threatened Doll in anyway. It would be how he too would react if anyone tried to hurt her.

  10

  Luke awoke early as he always did and flung his sheets off himself and padded out into the hallway and paused outside the bedroom door opposite him. Would Doll have left in the middle of the night because of what he’d done to her? Given her reason to mistrust him? He reached for the door handle and pulled back. He couldn’t help it, he’d been up after Doll had walked off on him last night and tried to figure out how to amend what he’d done without angering her further. But the reality was he’d screwed up. He reached forward again and slowly opened it.

  His heart raced until he saw Doll in bed, curled up with Jeremy, sound asleep. He closed the door again and felt relief sweep through him. He didn’t want to be the reason she fled, if she was going to. Luke had no intention of adding to Doll’s hardships in life.

  Luke walked back into his room and picked up his cell phone checking out the time on it as he switched it back on. There were three messages. One from Dylan which told him nothing but he needed to answer his phone when summoned. Immediately. Another message from his brother Bastian, one from his brother Aiden. They both said the same thing. That made the hair on Luke’s neck stand up. He had to hustle.

  His pack had needed him last night. His father would be seeking him out shortly. Luke walked over to his wardrobe and grabbed a clean shirt, and jeans. He heard movement in the house and realised Doll and Jeremy were up. He glanced around his room quickly.

  Going to pack business would mean leaving Doll and Jeremy alone during lunar week’s day two. He didn’t want to give her reason to bolt away from him. But he couldn’t be the type of werewolf she feared that would stalk her and follow her every move.

  If Luke had any chance of keeping her with him, he had to give her room. Doll needed to feel secure and safe and that she had the ability to make choices. He didn’t want her to fe
el like a prisoner in his home. He hoped she’d be alright during the day time, dealing with the lunar affects.

  “Lunar Week.” Doll muttered to herself.

  It’d been the first thing on her mind when she woke up. The previous nights influencing issue with Luke had put her back on edge. And so she’d felt compelled like an OCD addict to check that both the back door and front door where able to be unlocked. That they could escape, Jeremy and her, if they need to.

  She’d already discovered the back door opened just fine. Doll opened the front door and almost jumped back out of sheer shock. There on the front step of the door, right in her personal space stood a rather strapping and impressive looking male. He had to be at least six feet six tall. He had dark brown eyes, and brown hair, was clean shaven and chiselled jawed. Broad shoulders that looked like they went from one side of the doorway to the other.

  “Hello,” He said in a warm voice, a hit of a smile at the edges of his mouth. Doll thought the words, what do we have here, should have followed on from his greeting. His eyes were taking her in and she was all too aware of how small she felt before this man. Correction, werewolf and how she was barely dressed in just an oversized t-shirt of Luke’s with nothing underneath it. She felt vulnerable.

  “Is Luke home?” Doll blinked and nodded her head. Opening the door on automatic pilot she stepped back completely and walked back into the house, silently leading the way.

  Doll appeared in his bedroom doorway and Luke stilled and stopped his search. He should apologise to her, again. He didn’t want her to start her day still mad at him. He didn’t want her running away from him or afraid of him.

  “Doll about last night….”

  “Luke you have a guest.” Doll said abruptly cutting him off instantly and walking into his bedroom and straight to his side. As his guest followed in behind her, making it impossible for her to walk out of the room straight away.

  Doll’s entire body was tense. Luke looked over at her and then at the tall male. Doll had become submissive again. Her head was lowered, her eyes were lowed, she was intimidated by the other male. Luke understood, it was a common reaction to a dominant alpha werewolf like Dillon. But he didn’t want Doll to feel that way to have to think she had to react that way. Slipping an arm around her waist lightly, he noted Doll seemed to press into him further after that. Seeking his touch, needing re-assurance that she was okay in the presence of this new alpha that she didn’t know.