Heart of Stone - Book 1: Fighting Fate

Stone rode the motorcycle to the plaza two blocks down, where he parked it and walked back to her apartment complex. Pocketing his earplugs, he allowed his senses to fill him in on the activity going on around him.

Rubbing his face with his hand, he tried to figure out what to do with the mess he was in now. He was a male of his word, and if he couldn’t get Aubree to leave, then what would he do about making her his?

Could he really make her his? Could he really accept her as his mate, to take the place of Adelaide by his side?

He cursed himself out under his breath as he walked to a clump of trees and sat in the protection of their shade. Leaning his back against one of the trunks, ignoring the rough edges of the bark as it dug into his back, he looked up over his shoulder to the apartment building sixty yards away and her unit fifteen floors above. Cradling his chin in his hand, he leaned forward, his elbow on his knee, while his other arm rested across his lap.

Despite the fact that everyone but Gwen was asleep, he kept his mental barriers up to prevent her from reading his thoughts. He knew she would be quick to hop on the Aubree bandwagon, but was that the best thing for Aubree? Bringing her into his world would mean she’d have to give up everything she had ever known, everyone she had ever loved, and everything she had fought hard to achieve. Not only that, but it wouldn’t make her any safer than she currently was. True, she’d be surrounded by his pack, but the woods where they lived was more dangerous than the city in terms of concealing creatures of the night.

If he could just get her to leave...

A silvery-gray car pulled into the complex a few minutes later and Stone recognized the driver as Aubree’s boyfriend.

Undeniable, burning jealousy forced him to his feet, but was able to stop himself from walking out in front of the car to confront him.

Clenching his fists at his side, he pushed the burning fire down into his gut. Hanging back and watching him drive by, he chided himself for letting his emotions get away with him.

The guy hadn’t done anything wrong. Stone didn’t even know his name, for Goddess’ sake. What would he even say to him anyway? Convince Aubree to leave?

No. What he really wanted to say was that Aubree deserved better.

But was he any better than her boyfriend? How could he be better when he was the reason she was a target for the vampires? She didn’t ask to share a bond with him—she didn’t even know what it was and no doubt it was confusing her.

Maybe he needed to be the one to leave? Move to the other side of the country before the vampires could figure out that Aubree somehow shared a bond with him? That should keep her safe and prevent him from ruining her life. She’d be able to continue living the life she chose, not one that bound her without choice to him. She could continue working a job she liked, marry a human male, have children, and all that normal stuff that humans did.

Not that he and Aubree could reproduce... Could they?

He rolled his eyes at himself. Of course, they could reproduce. Where did werewolves come from, if not from lycan males breeding with human females? There had been numerous times that lone lycans kidnapped humans and used them for sex to form their own packs of subordinates. Dishonorable sons of bitches, they were.

They usually got what they had coming to them. Either the humans would find them and kill them, or their own packs would turn on them, having had enough of their tyrannical rule.

For thousands of years, the werewolf species grew out of male lycans breeding with human females, whose reproductive cycles weren’t bound to the planetary alignment of the moon. Lycan soulmates could only conceive during total lunar eclipses, making it harder to have pups, unlike human females.

Since the Roman conquest of Egypt, a law was created to protect humans from having sexual relations with lycans. It was unheard of that a lycan’s soulmate be a human—that was more common among werewolves, where even they had strict rules regarding sexual relations with humans as well. Even then, only soulmates were allowed after the soulmates in question were taken before the pack’s elders and alphas for approval of such coupling to exist.

Lycans didn’t have human soulmates. It was verboten. Their union would destroy her. What should he do?

He had to keep her hidden, not only from the vampires but the werewolves as well. It was better for her to leave, but Aubree was as stubborn as he was and determined not to leave. If she didn’t leave, what choice did he have? He couldn’t abandon his pack—his family—and leave himself to protect her, and he couldn’t stand by idly and watch her live her life from a distance.

He couldn’t make Aubree his, could he?