Ancient vendetta, p.1
Ancient Vendetta, page 1
Ancient Vendetta
Ancients Rising Series
Copyright © 2021 Katie Reus
Cover art and digital formatting
by Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
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Editor: Julia Ganis
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
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Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
His responsibility is to his pack, his people—the territory of New Orleans.
When the world devolved into chaos and fire, Alpha wolf King kept his territory from collapsing. Now, every day it seems there’s a new challenge—rogue witches, treacherous vampires, evil dragons. But his biggest threat is Aurora. Unique, magical, a female who sees him, the male, and not simply the Alpha in charge. But she’s thrown up so many walls that he’s afraid he’ll never be able to break through to the woman behind them. When the most dangerous threat they’ve ever faced ravages the city he’ll need her at his side—to defeat it, and then claim the woman who already owns him, body and soul.
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But she makes him want more.
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After being held captive for a year, Aurora has embraced her freedom. For the first time in her life she’s living away from her older sister in a new territory. A new world. She’s made friends and is helping New Orleans get back on its feet. Giving to others is helping her combat her PTSD, but she’s far from the woman she used to be. Even so, she can’t fight her ever present and growing attraction to King. Except she’s afraid she’s broken, that she’ll never be able to have a normal relationship again—that she can’t handle being an Alpha’s mate. When an evil linked to his past threatens to tear them apart and destroy the city, she must set her fears aside and find the courage to follow her heart—and the wolf who’s already won it.
For Kaylea Cross, the sister of my heart.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Dear Readers
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Complete Booklist
Chapter One
One year ago
Lucius slid onto the barstool and eyed the mostly humans in the dark interior of the one-story bar in a place called Sitka, Alaska. He received a few curious looks, but mostly people ignored him.
Which was how he preferred it. For now.
He’d woken months ago and was still learning much about this new world. The cave he’d crawled out of deep in the wilds had been his resting place for longer than he wanted to think about. Over a hundred years at least; he wasn’t sure. He’d learned quite a bit thanks to something called the internet, but knew there was much he still did not know. Like where the bastard who’d killed him was—well, who thought he’d killed Lucius.
“Harry, turn it up,” the man with a thick, fur-lined hat a couple stools down from him called out to the bartender.
Without looking up from his book, Harry did just that, grabbing a small piece of technology called a remote control. The man also still hadn’t offered to retrieve Lucius a beverage and Lucius knew he was aware of him.
His jaw tightened at the rudeness, but he remained still, studying everyone inside. All men. Ten total. He could feed from all of them, gain the strength he needed—and take anything of monetary value. He had much to do, but feeding was the most important.
As a bastard, hybrid vampire, he did not always feed on blood, though sometimes he chose to. At one time he had fed on blood, almost a hundred and fifty years ago. But he preferred to feed on energy. It sustained him longer. Blood was just when he was angry and needed an outlet.
As he contemplated whether he should feed on everyone in here or wait and take them one at a time, there was a stirring in the room.
“Is that a…wait, a dragon?” Everyone in the place shifted in their seats, a couple men jumping to their feet as they all crowded at the bar, staring up at the television on the wall.
Lucius stared too, surprise flickering through him as dragons and other supernaturals battled in the sky above a city. Fire and death erupted everywhere as various images flashed on-screen. Multiple dragons battling. A…phoenix? Huh. A female wielding a flaming sword sliced at a dragon. Screams filled the air as humans ran around like rats. The video started shaking as whoever was taking it started backing up.
Suddenly another dragon swooped down. Then a dark-skinned male with a sword— Lucius sucked in a breath.
King.
“How is this real?” A man likely in his twenties stared, open-mouthed, as he slid up next to Lucius. He smelled of beer and fish.
“Where is this?” Lucius demanded. “On the screen.”
“New Orleans,” the younger man murmured, but didn’t look his way. “That’s Jackson Square. Been there once for Mardi Gras. Holy shit.”
“New Orleans.” He let the name of the place roll off his tongue. That was where he would go. Soon enough. He was far too weak at the moment, but that would change.
He slid off the stool, strode to the door and locked it before turning off the brightly lit open sign with a simple click. Then he cast a sealing spell, closing all the exits tight.
No one noticed a thing, everyone transfixed by the images on the screen. Lucius didn’t care what was happening. He’d always planned to hunt down King, but had thought it would take decades to find the male. Supernaturals had always lived in secret, and in some cases, in other realms.
Lucius hadn’t even been sure if King still lived.
But now? Oh, this was the fates rewarding him. Serving up the mongrel bastard who’d thought to kill him. Him.
Lucius sat back at the barstool, reached out and grabbed the young human who stank of beer and fish by the neck. The man stared at him, jerking back, his hands flying up defensively, but Lucius struck fast.
He dug his fingers into the male’s neck, injecting a shot of magic from his fingertips. Then he forced the man’s mouth open and breathed in his energy.
The man was frozen, his eyes wide with raw terror as a shudder of delight rolled through Lucius. No one noticed him or even turned their way, their attention rapt on the television. Warmth infused him as he began dragging in the energy from the young, robust human. This was prime stuff feeding him.
But it was over too quickly, the male a hollow husk as Lucius dropped him to the floor with a thud.
The bartender turned at the sound, someone finally noticing what he had been doing.
The grizzled old man stepped forward, his wiry eyebrows slanted down. “What the hell—”
Lucius jumped over the bar, lightning fast, and grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, throwing him at the dozens of bottles lining the back of the bar.
Glass shattered under the impact, shards flying everywhere in a blast of sound.
Shouts of alarm rang out, but he ignored them.
“We’re going to have some fun,” he growled as he lifted the stunned human up by the neck and slammed him against the bar again. This time he didn’t let go. Instead he did the same thing to him as he’d done to the young human.
Another human came at him from behind, but he barely felt the bottle that smashed over his head. He just kept drinking in energy.
“Oh shit,” someone murmured, fear bleeding from their pores, infusing the air.
“The door won’t open!” someone else shouted.
“Here!” Someone threw a stool at the window, but it bounced off it.
He was vaguely aware of the humans trying to escape but the sealing spell held for now. Maybe they could escape with enough time, but likely not by the time he got to them. This had been the right idea, taking them all at one place, one by one.
The energy infused him, making him light-headed and even hungrier.
He now knew w here King was. And he was going to hunt him down and kill him. To do that he needed energy, and a lot of it. Starting with every human in this bar. Then he’d move on to the rest of the town.
Once he found King in this place called New Orleans, he would take everything from that upstart male. He was going to make him wish he’d never been born.
Chapter Two
Present day
Aurora stepped up to look at Mia’s painting, nodded in approval. It was a black-and-white painting of the bayou, with dark shadows in various shapes creeping out of the water. One almost looked as if it could be a dragon, but with the ripples of water it just teased at it. “Stunning, Mia. Absolutely stunning. And perfect use of shading.” Mia was human and one of Aurora’s most talented students by far. She was planning to offer to mentor her because the young woman painted with a kind of soul that touched Aurora’s own.
“Thank you,” Mia murmured, ducking her head slightly so that her long auburn braid fell over one shoulder. She seemed to be unsure of her talent or just unused to praise.
“If you have time, I’d like to talk to you after class?”
Her eyes widened slightly, but she nodded.
“What about my painting?” Ingrid, leader of the Cheval vampire coven, asked a few canvases down, her tone indicating she thought it was a masterpiece.
Aurora moved toward her and forced herself to smile. Oh. My. “It’s very colorful. Wonderful use of all your paints.” Her brain fritzed out for a moment as she wondered if that was condescending, but Ingrid beamed at her.
Okay, so that was something at least. This was one of the oddest art classes she’d taught since settling in New Orleans—and with the mix of supernaturals and humans, she’d found that she had to wear kid gloves with the supernaturals more often than not. Ingrid was a powerful vampire, likely over two hundred years old, and couldn’t paint to save her life. It looked like a toddler had given their best effort, but Aurora would never say that. Would never even let on that she thought that.
“It looks like a child went wild with fingerpaints,” Claudine, leader of the Bonavich vampire coven said with absolutely no inflection. “Really, Ingrid. You can do better.” The vampire was old-old, waaaayy older than Aurora wanted to guess. One of her packmates had said that Claudine’s eyes reminded them of a shark—and they weren’t wrong.
So the fact that two old vampire leaders were taking her art class at all? So weird. Aurora didn’t actually understand why they were here. She knew they had a whole lot of important stuff to be doing. Right? They ran two important covens in New Orleans but here they were, taking an art class on Tuesday night among humans, shifters and young vampires.
“Well I like it,” Olga, a feline shifter of sorts, said from the row behind them before Ingrid could respond. “It’s better than my attempt.” She frowned at her own canvas, stepped back and frowned even deeper.
“There will be no insulting anyone’s art at all.” Aurora shot Claudine a sharp look before she made her way to the sink, gathering paintbrushes as she went. “We’re all here to learn, and more than that, have fun. This is about creative expression and finding an outlet for that creativity. The world always needs more art. But we’re about done, so start cleaning up your areas now, please.”
A low murmur started as everyone did just that. And when she turned around, she found Mia had moved up quietly to stand next to her at the sink. “I can’t really stay after class, because I’ve got another thing, but…is everything okay? You said you needed to talk to me, so…” She cleared her throat.
“Let’s set up a time then, whenever is good for you. I really wanted to talk to you about potentially giving you one-on-one classes, and if you’re open to it, I’d like to mentor you. You’ve got so much talent and—”
“Yes!” she shouted, then cleared her throat again. “Ah, I mean, yes, I’d love that.” Mia’s cheeks flushed bright pink. “I just…wow, thank you. I’ll call you about meeting so we can talk more then?”
“Of course. Just let me know what works for you and we’ll definitely figure out the details. I want to see what other mediums you might want to try.”
“Thank you. I promise I’ll call.” Then she hurried off, a wide grin on her face.
“Why did you have to ruin my fun?” Claudine murmured as she came to join Aurora at the sink, quickly sliding into Mia’s empty spot.
She side-eyed the woman as she washed paintbrushes. Claudine’s voice had the slightest lilt to it, was cultured and elegant. Even standing here in simple jeans and a turtleneck sweater—which were both likely from a well-known but expensive designer that had existed before The Fall—she radiated a kind of self-assuredness that Aurora could only aspire to. “Why did you have to poke at her?”
“Because she’s so easy to needle and I’m old. I need my fun.” She laughed in a rich, throaty way that Aurora felt travel through her.
It was disconcerting, as if the female’s power was ricocheting through her, making its presence known. “There are other ways to have fun besides being a dick.”
Claudine blinked, then laughed again, her dark curls bouncing slightly. “You are one of the only people to talk to me like that. I find I quite enjoy it. It’s so refreshing.”
Well that was good, right? “Glad I’m entertaining,” she said, laughing lightly. With some of these old supernaturals, you just never knew how they were going to react to something. They might laugh or cut your head off.
“So, why haven’t you invited me to your compound?”
Aurora blinked at the blunt, unexpected question. “Invite you?” Like…for what? Tea? Aurora grabbed the nearest clean but paint-stained rag and dried her hands, stepping away from the sink and Claudine as a few others crowded around. “I feel like I’m missing something here.”
Claudine stepped with her, her movements fluid and graceful as they moved to the other side of the room by Aurora’s desk—which was currently stacked with canvases and supplies.
“For a drink. Or for a meal.” She eyed her expectantly, her dark eyes assessing.
“I would love to have you over.” Again with the weirdness! It wasn’t as if they were friends, though Aurora did really like the female. “Ah…”
“Aurora.” Claudine’s voice held a hint of…maybe exasperation in it. “You’re a power in the city.”
“Oh, no—”
Claudine shook her head. “I like you more than I’ve liked anyone in a very long time so I’m going to give you unsolicited advice. Start inviting—slowly—some of the other leaders from various covens, packs, clans, whoever, over for drinks or dinner. I would tell you to invite humans as well, but they already all adore you as it is. So do the dragons, so you’re likely covered there.”
“Okay.” She so wanted to ask why, but for some reason felt like a child being almost scolded.
“Do you understand why I’m telling you this?” Claudine lifted a dark eyebrow now.
“No.” There was no reason to lie.
Claudine looked over her shoulder, saw that there were only a handful of humans left. She dropped her voice as she turned back. “There’s a chance that one day you’ll be the Alpha’s mate—an Alpha yourself—of the territory. You need to get to know the powers in the territory, for your sake and for King’s.”
Uhhhh. What. The. Hell. “Claudine—”
She held up a hand. “Right now this territory is new and King is a relatively new Alpha. He will take a mate eventually. And if I believed in betting, I would bet on you. Not because you’re the strongest, but because you’re smart and you’re very kind. I can see it, feel it in you. You might not want to play politics, but eventually you’ll have to if you want to survive. King does not play with others well, so if his mate is in favor with the majority of the territory, they will overlook certain things. Like when he acts like a foolish wolf.”
