Half-Blooded | The Dark Child Prophecy Series [✔️]

Intermission: Stripped

He hung around for two days on the edges of the vampire property. It hadn't been hard to find the Shadow Stalker coven after a few hours of following Serenity's old scent trails and running paths. Even though she said she never remembered her runs, she had kept to the same routes. Her inner wolf had its own memories and course.

Jason ducked his head below the branches of the pine tree he was hunkered down beneath to keep his black fur concealed in the shadows. His ears rotated slowly, listening to the sounds of the vampire coven house. There were clear sounds of fighting and weaponry being used that turned out to be soldiers practicing drills. He couldn't see them, but his heightened senses allowed him to listen from his spot along the higher ground above the property.

"Serenity, you keep acting like that, you're gonna get your ass kicked tomorrow night!" a voice hollered, followed by laughter from others.

Jason's ears perked up and he continued to listen.

"Well, Troy, you give it your best shot. Last time you talked trash, I believe it was your ass that got kicked," her voice responded, flat with hints of malice. She sounded so different in the real world. She had such a soft and sweet voice in his dreams.

The side door to the giant mansion opened and closed and Jason moved to the edge of the brush and low branches, watching. Then there she was, her blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders as she hopped down the steps to the gravel drive. She was wearing a lightweight hiking jacket and boots. He watched as Serenity stomped past the gardens to the barn, disappearing behind its red siding before appearing again in the field. She hopped the fence in one vault, dropping down onto the other side before heading towards him and the tree line.

Jason backed away from the edge and started to trot in a parallel path to hers as she walked across the horse pasture. He could smell and sense her heightened emotions. She was frustrated with the man she had been speaking to. The black wolf kept to the shadows, watching her as he moved carefully through the underbrush.

Serenity moved quickly, her shoulders tight with tension. He could smell the musk on her, the sign she might change or lose control of her senses. She didn't seem to notice his scent or his presence. Her hands were clenched in fists at her sides and she moved with purpose. She pushed through the few trees and bushes at the edge of the pasture before hopping the gate and heading up into the woods.

Jason waited until she was past him so he could trail along behind her. He followed her up through the trees to a secondary clearing that was marked with a few gravestones and a large maple tree in the middle of the grassy thicket.

The blonde suddenly began to shrug out of her coat despite the slight chill in the fall air and then she stripped off the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing. Jason hunkered down in the tall grass and waited. She made a soft sound of pain before doubling over in half, her arms wrapping around her middle. She yelped and then dropped to her knees, her back arching.

She's changing, he realized, his ears lying back. His dark purple eyes flicked upwards to the moon, just shy of being truly full. He looked back as the blonde hybrid struggled to stay on her hands and knees as she trembled, her inner animal fighting to change her body from human to canine. She's completely blacked out, he thought, his body tensing. There was no way to help her; she would lose all control if he intervened now.

Serenity made a strangled cry of pain and then there was silence. After a long pause, she rose back to all fours in her other body. The wolf shook out her blonde fur and stretched before circling around in a loop for a moment. She paused and looked in his direction.

Jason waited, frozen. The blonde wolf stared at him for a long moment before she took off in a fast run. She hadn't seen him. She was blind to the world, out of control.

He had seen this before in other wolves who never learned how to be in their fur. It was comparable to animalistic schizophrenia where two dueling personalities fought over the control of one body. The worst cases did not have happy endings, as decreed by the king alphas centuries before his generation. Rabid wolves were put down, to save the secrecy of the race from being hunted down and driven to extinction by humans.

When wolves went rogue, they were given one option: be put in the cage until they learned to control themselves, or be put down.

She's going to get herself killed, the wolf thought, following her.

He followed her for a few hours until she was safely back in her clearing and had changed into her naked human body. He watched as she pulled her clothes on slowly, exhausted, before she trudged back towards her home. And then, he sped back off towards the Pack house.

It took him most of the night to run the distance between the Shadow Stalker coven and Meadowlark, the need to make political moves driving his feet faster. If he could figure out how to meet her on the diplomatic field under an olive branch, he could show her how to exist. And if the wolves discovered her existence before she learned self-control... Jason was certain what the ruling would be.

When he arrived back on the grounds, he found his clothes where he had left them beneath the usual aspen tree. He got dressed and walked back to the large house, feeling lost in a moment of déjà vu. He rounded through the ground floor library and into the grand hall.

"Jason," came a gruff voice from behind him before he could jog up the large staircase. The younger wolf paused and turned to see his father moving through the main living room. He was a tall, thickly built man with a barreled chest and limbs.

"Sir," Jason responded, coming back down the few steps he had ascended to come even with his father.

"You've been gone again. Something have you distracted near the vampire properties?" the alpha asked. He raised a bushy eyebrow.

Jason cleared his throat, taking away his gaze for a moment, respectfully submitting to his father's dominance. "You're having me followed?" he answered in a question of his own.

The alpha smirked, looking glib. "I only have one son. And when he disappears for days at a time to spy on a bunch of Dead Men, it's my right to know who and what it is he's been tracking."

"Such as the Mezdor half-blood who runs about as a rabid creature in the west woods?" a female voice added from behind the prince. When he looked over his shoulder again, his mother had taken up residence on the stairs behind him, leaving him trapped between them like prey. Her long, dark hair hung in thick curls. Her wide doe eyes settled on him, scorching with her alpha dominance.

Jason lowered his gaze again, glancing at the tapestry carpet beneath his mother's bare feet. His jaw clenched at that word. Half-blood.

"You aren't the only one who has been curious about their bloodlines, Jason," his mother went on. "In fact, I've had wolves keeping eyes on the Mezdor family for a long time. As had your grandfather. But never the indigo eyes of my own blood. Shadow Stalkers are powerful and they have a queen who is made of steel. I don't want you on their borders without Thomas or Daniel, nor without my express permission."

The young wolf grit his teeth again. "Is this a command, Queen Alpha?" he asked, looking up at her, their purple eyes locking. "A command for your master alpha, Mother?"

The woman smiled without parting her full lips. "If you thought it wasn't, you wouldn't be questioning me. Leave the Mezdor half-blood to her dwindling existence. If she is seen out of control again, I will have no choice than to have her put down. Hybrids are dangerous and do nothing but threaten the security of the Pack."

"Yes, Mother," Jason said slowly, looking away again. "I won't interfere."