And when my tongue touched the blood in an effort to heal, a booming voice screamed in my head.
“Awaken.”
Maybe the monster wasn’t outside the house. Maybe I was the monster.
Maybe I was the one they should fear.
SERENITY
I was either losing my mind, or Mason was outside howling at the moon. In a tangle of sheets, I finally got out of bed and walked over to the window. He was standing in the same worn jeans as before, only this time he was completely barefoot as the moon cast a silver glow over his face.
It was as if he was growing before my very eyes. I was no wolf expert, but even I knew that they stayed the same size throughout their immortal lives. Wolves didn’t grow with age.
And yet he was definitely increasing in girth.
This morning he’d been at least two inches shorter than when he brought me his steak. His biceps, while impressive before, now stretched and strained against his skin as if they were dying to break through. The night air blew his hair across his sharp cheekbones.
Every inch of skin was just barely containing an arsenal of muscle that was so impressive it was hard to look away.
I gulped out a “Wow.”
Mason’s head jerked up to the window.
I completely froze.
His dark eyes locked on mine, and then very slowly lightened to an ice-blue. Another wolf trick I’d never seen before, not that I hung out in their packs.
He started walking back toward the house. I could feel my heart in my throat as his heavy footsteps gave way up the stairs and finally down the hall until the door to my room was shoved open, and he ducked inside.
His shaggy hair was kissing his shoulders as he made his way toward me slowly, cautiously, as if I was the danger, not him. Muscle stretched across his abdomen and stomach, glistening with a sheen of sweat.
I gulped and then whispered, “I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever you were doing. I just… I heard you.”
He frowned. “Heard me?”
I felt so stupid. “Howling.”
He cracked a smile. “It’s not called howling. It’s called singing.”
I squinted up at him. “But… it sounds like a howl.”
He smiled a bit more, making me feel warm inside instead of afraid, lonely.
“To a vampire, it sounds like a howl, a protective intimidation technique. It sounds the same to humans. But to the angels? The stars? Or our own packs? It sounds like…”
He looked lost in a dream as his face broke out into a smile. “…it sounds like the song of salvation.”
“Is it always the same?”
“Always.” He shrugged. “The howl, as you call it, was passed down to the immortal wolves, a gift from our Creator, a way to create protection over our packs and young while giving him the glory for it in the first place. It is our cry to return to the stars, our thanks. It’s the story of our beginning and the eventual story of our end.” He looked down, his eyes closing. “It has been a long time since my song has joined others.”
I reached out, thought twice about it, then just soldiered forward and pressed a hand to his arm then squeezed. “Why?”
He looked down at my hand, confusion marring his brow before he placed a hand on top of mine and then very slowly ran his thumb across my skin.
I shivered.
“I am their leader, but I found I couldn’t lead the way I needed to when my mate died. I left my second in command. It is better that way.?