Once Bitten (An Anya Maynard Novel)

Book Two of the Anya Maynard Series; A Father's Sin (Preview)

   Before the tears could roll down my cheeks the doorbell rang, its deep tone echoing throughout the house.

   I sighed, looking to my father’s mate, Lynn, futilely for help so I could have time to compose myself. The bell rang again but still she continued as if there hadn’t been a sound, expecting the servants to get it most likely. But unlike the plush home she shared with my father in California, we had no servants here, no one to degrade and belittle for their efforts. If we were having some sort of function, like the Christmas party, well then that was another story. And that staff was usually supplied by the catering company itself.

   “It’s open,” I shouted, choosing to stay where I was rather than make the effort to get up and cross the foyer floor for the door.

   I grinned to myself when I saw Lynn jump. I bet that wasn’t quite to her social standards.

   “Busy are we young wolf,” the man laughed as he let himself in.

   I gave him a smile of apology and hefted myself off the floor to greet him properly. His was a power to be respected, both the man and the magic. And though I knew he took no real offense to my laziness, it was still within me to give him the revere he was due. He was very plain to look at, nothing that would draw your eye back to him…if you ignored the fact that he dressed in furs resembling something close to a Viking rather than any modern day man. Slight of size, slight of build, brown hair, brown eyes, he was so very ordinary…until you understood the power of his spirit.

   Kai was far from human and his power was deeply earth rooted, just as it was for all the other Dryads, the tree people. With barely a thought could grow as large as the tree he shared his life with. With just a word he could bring the snow down in an avalanche from the highest peaks. And with just a step he could cross hundreds of feet in a moment’s time. What else he was capable of I didn’t know, nor did I feel the need to ask. Not knowing was for the better. I didn’t want to put the thought out into the universe for a scenario so far gone that he would have to show his true strength.

   “Sorry Kai,” I said as I embraced him, an action that I had grown more than comfortable with in recent months despite my upbringing. “I was just…thinking.”

   Again he laughed, the house physically shaking with the warm sound, “that is something you and your mate have in common, becoming lost to thoughts of those you love.”

   I smiled, gesturing him inside with a hand that still held Connor’s childhood picture. “Sorry about the mess. You’d think we’d be done unpacking by now. I mean, the old house wasn’t even a quarter of the size, and we’ve been here for nearly two months now…but Connor’s been so busy…”

   Which is why he and my father had gone out hunting today, as wolves, he needed the time off.

   Kai quickly waved off my apology, “it is alright wolf. You do not have to make excuses for me. I understand how hard it is to run a territory and a home at the same time.”

   Again I gave him the same apologetic smile. Of course he knew. These hills belonged to him and his kind. And being that Kai was as old as the hills as Connor put it, he had been ruling them for a very long time. We were just sort of borrowing the land, the wolves. Though a treaty had once been made for the wolves to own it, it had been dissolved upon Aaron’s -Connor’s step father- death, leaving the lands to belong once again to the tree people. It was pack rule but Kai’s law we lived under.

   It wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Besides the fact that Kai was a fair and just…man, it was his law that allowed me and any other creature seeking sanctuary to live here safely.  Not that just anyone could come on these lands, a criminal was still a criminal and they were not allowed lest they face Fae justice themselves- which generally involved bodily harm or death. But here you wouldn’t be persecuted for something as simple as your birth. There were no prejudices here, just acceptance.