MacRieve (Immortals After Dark) Read Free Page A

was his mate they spoke of! Surely she was.
    “Do you no’ know what she is?” Da spat the words: “She’s a succubus. ”
    “Ruelle told me this, right off.”
    “Aye, but do you understand what the word means, what her kind do?”
    Will’s eyes darted. “It means that we are so connected we’ll suffer without each other.” After three nights of mating a succubus, a male would take on her essence, her mystical venom, binding himself to her until death.
    Mam said, “It means she’s a parasite.” Her tears fell. “One who sank her claws into my lad.” He’d never seen his mother cry before this eve. “She’s envenomed you. ’Tis why you have sickness.”
    “Then I need to reach her. It’s been three days. If I’m feeling this way, then so is she.”
    Da shook his head. “Unlike you, she can take another. I’d be shocked if she does no’ have a stable of lovers. Even in the Woods, she could lure others.”
    Impossible. Ruelle loved Will alone.
    Da finally sank down beside Mam. “How long have you been seeing her?”
    Will hesitated.
    In a tone brooking no disobedience, Da snapped, “How—long?”
    Forcing his shoulders back, Will answered, “I first went to her cottage four years ago.”
    Da shot back to his feet. His mother pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to stifle a retching sound. Had there been a glimmer of rage in Da’s eyes? A glimpse of his beast? Never had Da unleashed it before them.
    Should Will be denied his mate just because he and Ruelle were born in differing times? How could his parents react so violently to something that was natural? They were not usually judgmental.
    Will hugged the blanket tighter, struggling to hide his shudders. Pain was like a drum inside him, beating him, breaking him. His bones . . .
    “My precious lad,” Mam choked out, rising to her feet. “ ’Tis a vile perversion,” she told Da. “I doona understand how he survived her hungers when so young! He’s far from his immortality.”
    Survived? Could he have died ? All Will had done was bed a beautiful woman.
    “His beast is stronger than most, a pure alpha,” Da said. “Like Munro’s. I’ve spoken of this before.”
    Will remembered. Da had sounded both proud yet fearful at the same time. The beast could be a blessing and a curse, lending strength but robbing reason.
    “Did your beast rise up when you were with her?”
    Will absently nodded.
    “Otherwise, she would’ve killed you—a fact she well knew, son.”
    Nay, ’twas not true. Nothing could make him believe Ruelle had ever jeopardized his life. She could be demanding, pushing him to his limits, but only because he was strong and could take it. He was strong for his age. She’d repeatedly said so.
    “Look how our son shakes even now. Her venom’s work. This must be answered!” Mam declared.
    “It will be, love. I set out for the Woods at dawn. I’ll petition for entry. The Elders will grant it before they let a pup suffer.”
    Answered? Will still didn’t quite comprehend their crime. His older cousins were forever tumbling females, and they’d started when they were not much older than Will was now.
    But I started earlier still. He glanced at Munro, seeking an ally. Munro cast him a baffled look.
    “Nay, Dùghlas!” Mam’s own beast was rising once more. “I know her kind! She’ll be winsome and manipulative, and she’ll twist you too. The men of this pack have said for ages they would run her out of the forest, and naught comes of it.”
    “They’re no’ our woods to patrol!” Da ran his hand over his face. “And she’s never targeted our young before! She’s never envenomed any of our males. Our lad will be free of this by tomorrow eve. The day after at the latest. I vow it.”
    “Free of this?” The only way out was Ruelle’s death. “I-I need to see her. Just tonight.” He and his mate could run.
    Leave behind my family?
    A lifetime of drowning  . . . ?
    “Nay!” Mam bared her fangs.