Page 1 of Ravish
Chapter 1
Shea
“Thank you, everyone, for coming to the town meeting.” Roland paused, his gaze sweeping the crowd, making them feel welcome. Shea shivered when his glance met hers, his icy silver blues piercing when she was captured by them, losing herself in what-ifs for the split second they were trained on her before his gaze moved on.
She stared at him as he rested one of his hands on top of the podium and the other on the stem of the mic that rested near his mouth. She wanted to be that mic and the podium that he was resting his body against and began to envision, like she always did in his presence, what his hands and lips could do to her, but she quickly shook herself out of her thoughts because she knew with certainty that he would never touch her willingly or even consider the possibility of bedding her; the man despised her for what happened, even though the tragedy happened years ago. She sighed and concentrated instead on what he had to say.
“I’ve called this meeting in the lodge, as there have been sightings between the different Lycan clans in the surrounding area of this mountain of a mystery pack of Lycan shifters that have been spotted on the outskirts of each dwelling, just watching and then moving off when approached. I have a meeting with the leaders of the Wereshade, Easyrun, Braun, and Race the Wind clans later this afternoon, and I will update all of you on our findings afterwards, but for now, you can come andgo for daily business, be cautious, and don’t go out venturing alone.”
Shea was sitting in the far back against the wall and sat forward in surprise. Everyone began to talk at the same time. These meetings were usually called to announce a birth, a death, their annual parties, game night, hunting, or a message from the king, but this was something new and unexpected.
“Wow, a new pack of shifters. I wonder what they want?” Her best friend Emiyah whispered, turning to her for a second, her dark gaze resting on Shea’s face, before a heavy curl fell forward, obscuring her view, and then another followed by another. Shea had curly hair, but not like the coils Emiyah had, nor the volume. Her eyes still trained on Shea; Emiyah began blowing her tight, long curls out of her face.
Shea shook her head at her best friend, her only real friend in this community. She reached into her bag and took out a leather scrunchy for her friend to pull her hair off her face. Emiyah was always losing stuff, and if you needed to find her, all you had to do was follow the trail of lost objects littering the ground in her wake. For someone with short stature, her friend had more hair than even her height.
“I wonder if they are cute? I love me a rebel and a man of mystery.” Adanya, Emiyah’s identical twin, shoved her sister’s head to the side so she could join the conversation. Her face was alight with excitement.
The only differing feature between the twins was that whereas Emiyah had curls, Adanya had straight short hair that curtained her face in a bob. Both were a darker shade of brown than hers, and their eyes and hair were so dark it made a beautiful contrast against their skin color. Even though both twins looked identical, their personalities were like night andday. Emiyah was a chatterbox, absent-minded, and kind to a fault. Her friend could not even bring herself to hurt a fly, and that is how they became best friends when they met. She was crying over having accidentally swatted and knocking the fly hard to the ground, where it died. Her sad wails had called to Shea, and she had gone over to the child, a year or two younger than her, dried her tears, and then took a leaf off the ground and picked up the dead fly.
“It now has a very important duty to perform.” Both heads moved together to look down at the deceased fly.
The girl had looked at her in question, frowning.
“How? It’s dead?” The young girl’s voice quivered.
“It will now become part of the earth and will nourish the plants growing there. Will you help me bury it?” She smiled and nodded to the girl in encouragement.
They had buried it, and both had prayed over the life of the fly, and afterwards the young girl introduced herself as Emiyah and took her hand in hers and announced, “We will be best friends for life; just don’t tell Adanya, or she will want to be a part of the best friends forever club too, and my twin sister annoys me and makes fun of me.” Young Emiyah gave Shea a displeased scowl.
Emiyah had looked at her until she promised, but she didn’t need to swear her to secrecy because Adanya didn’t care to be her best friend. And since Shea had known Adanya, she always felt more comfortable with the boys, which became a problem for her when she hit puberty.
Adanya was more of a scrapper and was great at fixing and building anything that required labor. She loved to tinker with anything mechanical. You would find Adanya outside with the men using a hammer, axe, or saw and helping with fences,houses, barns, cars, and appliances. To her dismay, the men in the village were starting to see her as a friend, one of thebros,as they referred to their male friends, rather than a desirable woman in her early twenties.
It didn’t help that Adanya would take you down in a fight if you looked at her wrong, but her one obsessive passion was men; she liked them in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and that’s all she talked about except for her latest project.
“Men, men, men are all you think about, Adanya.” Emiyah scoffed. “This is very serious if we are being brought to the hall, you know.” Emiyah continued with her lecture.
Adanya scowled and then wrinkled her nose in disgust. “At least I am not pining after the wooden statue of the super soldier over there.”
They all glanced at Roland’s first in command, Mack, whose head was completely clean-shaven, with tattoos running up his arms and across his chest, stopping at the base of his neck. He was bulkier than Roland, and he was slightly shorter in height than his leader. Mack’s silver gaze looked even icier than Roland’s. Staring and assessing the crowd, and then turning the silver orbs to the windows and doors, always on guard. He looked at them and for a split second paused longer on Emiyah, where he frowned and his lips moved as if he was making a chuffing sound in annoyance, before his attention moved on to other people sitting facing the podium.
“And who only frowns, chuffs, or grunts at you when you try to talk to him and then turns and walks away from you, as if you were invisible.” Adanya shook her head and moved her finger in a circle around her temple, making a motion that her sister was crazy.
Emiyah gave a low growl of irritation and then smacked the finger that her sister was using, causing Shea to grin.
“He’s just shy,” Emiyah grumbled in defense as she turned her attention away from her sister and Shea to stare in worship.
Adanya rolled her eyes. “That man is not shy; he doesn’t like or trust anyone, especially you in particular.”
Emiyah stiffened and turned in her seat. She looked ready to pounce on her sibling. “I do not—"
Shea opened her mouth to get in front of the trainwreck that was about to happen with the twins and closed it when someone else interrupted them.
“Ssshh, let’s finish hearing what he has to say.” The female voice sounded irritated, and they all looked over at Fantasy. Fantasy turned her one blue eye and one dark brown eye on them. Fantasy was the oldest of the bunch, being twenty-nine, almost thirty, and the darkest. Skin so dark, it rivalled the nights here on the mountain, and a big puffy afro that she adorned with hair accessories and scarves. She was also the tallest of the group, with her lithe form being over six feet.
They heard a low growl of warning from Roland, and they all turned to face the front again. “If anyone sees the mystery pack, do not try and engage or watch them. Come and speak to me or my men immediately.”
Shea reflected that they were pretty much left alone except for some travelers coming here to trade, join in the festivities, or even ask for directions. They would come and go with no concern, but this seemed to be an issue if the leaders of all the Lycan clans were coming together to discuss the new mysterious pack that just showed up in their area in the Mackenzie Mountains.
