Karen Whiddon: The Lost Wolf's Destiny

The instant Lucas Kenyon heard the man’s cultured, sanctimonious voice on the six o’clock evening news, his blood froze. Despite not having seen the speaker for fifteen years, he shuddered. He knew that voice, knew it too damn well. Even after fifteen years, it still haunted his nightmares.

Up until this past January, he’d assiduously avoided anything to do with The Church of Sanctuary and its leader. If something came on the news, he’d changed the channel. Newspaper or magazine articles were tossed, unread. He’d wanted no reminders of his painful past.

But the time had come to face his demons. Lucas had never in his life made a New Year’s resolution. This year, he had. No more would he bury himself in work and avoidance.

“What the hell?” he muttered, grabbing the remote and turning up the volume.

The man, Jacob Gideon—Lucas refused to think of him as his father—smiled benevolently. “We can heal young Hailey, I promise you that.” His tone reverberated with the sincerity of his conviction. “Faith works through my hands.”

Faith? Try murder. Un-freaking-believable. Briefly, Lucas closed his eyes, allowing the long-ago grief and pain and shame to wash over him. On some inner level he’d known. After all, Jacob had killed once in the name of his faith. Lucas had no doubt the man would do it again.

If he hadn’t already. Lucas cursed. No wonder the voice of his conscience had gotten so loud he’d been unable to drown it out.

As the man spoke again, Lucas snapped out of it. What Jacob was suggesting—no, stating —was more than wrong, more than an outright lie.

Of course, Jacob spoke as if he really meant his own nonsense. Lucas made a sound of pure disgust. Jacob had always believed he was an angel appointed from up high who had somehow misplaced his wings.

As if angels killed. Though thinking about how Lucifer actually had been a fallen angel, Lucas supposed it was possible. Jacob always had styled himself as if he sat on the other side of God.

His father looked sincere and kind, but Lucas knew better. Jacob was pure evil. Studying the man, he shook his head. Jacob looked eerily the same, as if selling his soul to the devil had granted him eternal youth. He was more than dangerous. He was deadly. No one knew that better than Lucas. After all, Jacob had been hunting him for the past fifteen years.

With narrowed eyes, Lucas watched the rest of the news segment, wincing as a fragile little girl with a heart-shaped face smiled painfully at the reporter. Something about her delicate vulnerability reminded Lucas of the child he’d once been, and the other. The twin he’d lost. The sister Jacob had killed.

As the camera narrowed in on a woman—her mother?—Lucas moved closer to the television. The sight of this unknown woman—as defenseless as her daughter—hit him like a sucker punch to the gut. Her brownish-blond hair as fine as spun silk, creamy porcelain skin and long-lashed green eyes, made her a beautiful mystery that interested him far more than his father’s manipulative faux spiritual healings. She was, Lucas thought, both lovely and otherworldly, in a way neither he nor Jacob Gideon would be able to resist—for reasons as different as they were themselves.

This was partly what interested him, or at least that was what he told himself. True, she was gorgeous, but around her he could see the faint hint of an aura. An aura that meant she was like him. He’d learned there were others, of course, and how to recognize them, even though he stayed away from them like he stayed away from Jacob.

Until now, as far as he knew, no others of his kind had fallen into Jacob Gideon’s clutches. Of course, if they had, he wouldn’t have noticed. A shudder racked him, of guilt and grief and sorrow at the knowledge that his years of avoidance might have enabled Jacob to snare another Shifter. Lucas had personal experience with what would happen to any soul so unlucky.

He closed his eyes. Though it had been fifteen years, he still fought the lasting effect of those inner wounds. This woman, whoever she was, was making a terrible mistake. Jacob would torment her the same way he’d tortured his own son, under the guise of doing his idea of the Lord’s work. That was awful enough.

Ah, but it didn’t stop there. Worse, far worse, was the fact that her little girl would be in even greater danger, despite Jacob’s claims of being able to heal her. Neither she nor her mother would ever be heard from again, once Jacob had them locked away in the compound known as Sanctuary, an enclave of his faithful on thirty acres in the West Texas desert. Both of them would probably end up dead.

Jacob had killed once before, many years ago. No doubt he’d have no qualms about doing so again.

The woman came on again, her clear, melodic tone professing what sounded like sincere hope that Jacob Gideon and his Sanctuary church would be able to help her daughter. Standing frozen, Lucas couldn’t evade or avoid the pain and the longing and the need in her voice for her daughter to be healed. The emotion touched him deep inside.

While he wrangled with the unexpected rush of emotion, his inner wolf came awake, paying attention to the woman’s words. This, too, was odd, as the beast had never before shown interest in any female. Concentrating on listening, he pushed his wolf back down, trying to figure out what drove the woman to ask for Jacob’s help.

She was desperate, he understood. She had to be to agree to something as far-fetched as Jacob’s outrageous claims. His stomach heaved and he swallowed back bile. He hadn’t expected this when he’d decided to avoid having anything to do with Jacob and his Sanctuary.

The question was, what was he going to do about it?

Dragging his hand through his hair, Lucas stood transfixed in front of his TV, even as the footage moved away from the woman and child and back to the news reporter. Finally, a commercial came on. The report had ended. As he clicked the remote and turned the television off, reality sank in.

Jacob Gideon had finally gotten his claws into another Shape-shifter. As far as Lucas knew, there hadn’t been any other victims since him and Lilly, which had led to his own escape so long ago. Since that fateful day, the image of his beloved sister’s lifeless body had haunted his every waking moment, as well as his dreams.

And this? He couldn’t hide from the truth. Unless he did something right now, he’d have to live with another innocent’s death on his conscience.

Which would be, of course, completely unacceptable.

Furious, he snarled an unintelligible curse, stopping himself just short of hurling the remote at the flat screen.

He could no longer remain hidden; the revenge he’d spent half his life dreaming about would finally be a possibility. After all, he was no longer a frightened teenager. He had to return to Sanctuary and save the Shape-shifter woman and her daughter.

Because he knew in his heart of hearts if he didn’t, he’d be just as bad—just as horrible, foul and evil—as the man he’d once called Father.

Blythe Daphne smiled wanly at the television camera, loathing that she had to beg for sympathy and invite ridicule. She’d do anything—absolutely anything—to help her daughter, Hailey. This was her last resort.