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  SEDUCTION

  By

  JENNIFER LOISKE

  PART TWO OF THE SHAPE SHIFTER SERIES

  ALSO BY JENNIFER LOISKE

  Imminence

  Copyright © Jennifer Loiske 2012

  All rights reserved

  www.jenniferloiske.com

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without written permission from the author.

  All characters and events in this publication are either purely fictitious or used fictitiously and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Any Gaelic language used in this book may have many different versions or meanings depending on the area from where it originated or where it is used. Therefore any mistakes in the grammar are the authors.

  Cover design by Eveliina Tommola 2011

  Copyright © Eveliina Tommola, Viima Graphics

  All rights reserved

  To Kimmo

  Always

  CHAPTER 1

  Clarissa

  Clarissa stared out her window at the hoar frost-covered white yard. The dark green grass that was jutting out after the summer had collected some filmy white frost during the night. The boughs in the trees were frosty and the cobwebs on the grass glittered when the morning sun reached them. The last mosquitoes from the summer danced above the grass, enjoying the warmth of the sun and their last days alive, baffling the ice-cold winter that was already waiting around the corner. Clarissa, however, didn't see the beauty of the yard, for her eyes were locked to the black eyes of the wolf - eyes that hounded her night and day.

  A huge, brown-black wolf was standing in the woods, hidden, staring steadily at Clarissa. She had no strength to turn her gaze from its hypnotic grasp. The air around it was steaming and its fur gleamed from the dampness of the morning. It had been standing there since the early hours of the morning and had been waiting for Clarissa to wake up. It had intruded her dreams and slowly seduced her mind through the night, tempting, calling and promising to fulfill all her wishes, if only she would give herself in to the wolf.

  Clarissa heard its call in her mind and she knew it wouldn't take long until all her barriers crumbled. She tried to build better, tighter barriers, just like her mom had told her, but the wolf came through them easily and though it didn't succeed in breaking all of them, it dug bigger and bigger holes in her walls and it was just a matter of days before it would overpower her mind completely. Excitement grabbed her stomach. She was deathly scared of the wolf and yet, without noticing, she stepped closer to the window.

  She pressed her nose close to the cold glass and watched it mist up. She couldn't help drawing a heart on the misted glass and just stared at it after, stunned. The wolf tightened its gaze and looked extremely pleased. Clarissa wiped the window quickly and stepped back. Her loose night trousers flopped, covering her long beautiful legs, but her tiny camisole revealed all her shapes, and somewhere inside her head she heard the wolf scream its lust for her. She quickly grabbed the topmost shirt from the chair and tweaked it on. The wolf sighed in frustration.

  Someone knocked on her door and with enormous effort Clarissa turned her head, moving her eyes away from the wolf. When she didn't answer, her little sister Marie opened the door carefully and peeked in. When she saw Clarissa's confused face, she grinned.

  “Pancakes,” she sighed happily and slumped onto Clarissa's messy bed, snuggling in her warm, white duvet.

  Clarissa stared at her, confused.

  “Pancakes,” Marie repeated ecstatically and glanced at a perplexed Clarissa.

  Marie's dark hair was tied loosely on the bottom of her head and some of it had escaped from her coiffure, as usual. She looked so full of life with her mossy-green eyes sparkling with excitement that Clarissa had to look away, smiling.

  “If I could decide, I would choose Mathanan. You wouldn't believe what fantastic, thick American pancakes he makes! And ice-cream and maple syrup! I'm in heaven,” Marie moaned.

  “If I've understood it correctly, Matt doesn't even want me,” Clarissa pointed out sarcastically. But she couldn't help smiling when she saw how blissful Marie looked.

  “Who cares! Choose Matt,” said the laughing voice, under the blanket.

  Clarissa took the blanket from Marie and threw a pillow at her. “And what does Tiamhaidh think of your interest in Matt's extraordinary cooking skills?”

  “He loves me and since he can barely boil an egg, he can't judge me,” Marie laughed and sat up.

  “Seriously, you have to come downstairs and save us. You know who has been here since six a.m. and we're all just so tired of entertaining him.”

  “Joshua?”

  “Joshua,” Marie repeated with a grin and smooched the pillow loudly.

  “Since six?” Clarissa asked and blushed.

  “What's wrong with you? Stop it! You're so weird, more than usual. Joshua has been waiting for you to wake up and he has a surprise for you. Just come downstairs and stop acting like some stupid parrot!”

  Clarissa turned, complaining, and glanced at the window just in case, but there was nothing. The yard was empty and the wolf she hoped to see had long gone to the thick of the forest. She could barely suppress the melancholic sigh that was about to break out of her lips and managed instead to let out some weird mix of giggles and hiccups. Marie looked at her, puzzled, but couldn't wait one minute. She was just happy to get Clarissa downstairs with her.

  In the middle of the stairs Marie stopped and knelt down. She gasped for breath and held her head.

  “Are you okay?” Clarissa asked, concerned.

  Marie couldn't answer. She just stared at her feet with glassy eyes. Her lips moved, though Clarissa couldn't hear a word.

  “Oh, my God! It's a seizure, isn't it?” Clarissa whispered.

  With an effort, Marie managed to make a small nod. Clarissa felt terrible. She had no clue what to do. Should she shout for help? Could she just run downstairs and leave Marie like this or should she just ignore the seizure? She had seen hundreds of Marie's seizures, but somehow she knew Marie didn't want her to tell anyone about this. Yet she felt that she had to. Clarissa took the first step down, when she felt a hand grabbing her leg.

  “Don't,” Marie said quietly.

  Clarissa stopped and sat down next to Marie. Silence wrapped around them. Marie looked pale and exhausted. Clarissa petted her hand gently. She felt terrible. Finally, after at least fifteen minutes, Marie stood up with her shaking legs and smiled lamely.

  “Please, don't tell Mom.”

  “But...” Clarissa began.

  “No! Promise. This is my disease and it's my right to decide, so just promise me,” Marie demanded, looking so fragile that it broke Clarissa's heart.

  Clarissa looked at her and nodded slowly. “Okay then. If you're absolutely sure?”

  “I am. There's no need to strain her. Besides, I can control this, this was just a small one.”

  Clarissa couldn't say a word. Marie had a very severe epilepsy, but Clarissa had thought that she had it controlled. It had been at least three years since she had seen anything like this and she was so sure that their Mom didn't have a clue about what was happening. If Marie could do anything, she could fool Mom and Clarissa was sure that her mom wouldn't ignore this. No matter what Marie said, this was not just a small seizure and certainly not one to ignore. They were silent as they slowly walked down the stairs. Just before they reached the bottom, they pasted a smile on their faces.

  When they came downstairs, Marie saw a huge huddle of pancakes and a cup full of steaming hot chocolate in which Tiamhaidh, the gorgeous man she loved, had secretly dropped big bars of milk chocolate. Nothing could've tempted her from that br
eakfast table. Marie grabbed Clarissa's hand tightly, and dragged her unwilling sister to the table.

  Twelve young shape shifter males had appeared in Clarissa's yard at the beginning of the Autumn. Their main goal was to have Clarissa as their partner. Two of them were exiled for their outrageous behavior, but ten gorgeous men were still stuck with her family. Joshua, from the Rocky Mountains, was the strongest one and Clarissa liked him the best. The others seemed to struggle more at a friendship level and Clarissa couldn't actually see herself dating them.

  The shape shifters had agreed to stay in their human forms until Clarissa made up her mind to choose one of them, but technically Joshua was way ahead of the others and no one really believed she would dump Joshua and fall in love with someone else. However, Adam was a true threat to Joshua. Adam, the dangerous, wild dark wolf, who had been exiled to the village of Senja in Northern-Norway where the eldest of the shape shifters lived, who had escaped from them and was back again, claiming Clarissa for himself and bonding with her in a way that no one else seemed to understand. There sure was a lot chemistry between them.

  Clarissa had just discovered her ability to shape shift and though no one could deny her abilities, no one could tell yet how strong she would become. Would she stay at this level, where she could barely shift her shape for a few minutes or would she achieve a full shape shift and her full strengths? She was the first shape shifter ever to be born from the union of human and shape shifter. The future scared her. She didn't know what she was anymore. Was she more a human than a wolf? Or vice versa? Odd creature, freak? Sometimes she wished she could go back to her past and live happily ever after with her loving parents, not knowing anything about the shape shifters. Thinking that animals were just animals and the boys she dated were just boys not wolves. She wished she could still believe that the fairytales her mom used to tell her were not true and that all the scary stuff didn't exist. Now she was lost. She didn't know what to believe and she suspected everyone and everything. Her childhood was irreparably over and she had no choice but to open her eyes and face the truth, no matter how hard it would be.

  Sofia

  I lay on the sofa, wrapped in a warm wool blanket, leaning against David's warm body. He was reading some creepy story, concentrating, but I just enjoyed the voices around me that filled my mind with their warmth and happily watched my pack's morning routines. Even the knowledge of Adam being back couldn't shock my mind. Though his howling kept me awake at night, I was convinced that he would not dare to approach Clarissa or my family without having my permission first.

  I had fifteen strong shape shifters in my pack, if we counted our guests as well, and I couldn't believe that even Adam in his lust would be so stupid as to attack us. I sighed and looked at my daughters who were scuffling down the stairs. Well, actually I wouldn't call Marie's coming a scuffle. She practically danced her way down and spun like a ballerina straight into Tiamhaidh's arms and kissed him teasingly. Clarissa, on the other hand, was scuffling, but just a little.

  I looked at her and noticed dark shades under her eyes that seemed to be there all the time nowadays. I should tighten my grip on her mind and protect it better, so she could rest more. Obviously, I had underestimated Adam's powers. Somehow he seemed to manage to howl in her mind and she couldn't resist him, at least not as well as I had thought. I wiped her mind lightly and was shocked when I realized how full of Adam it was. Adam's burning black eyes were haunting her every second and controlling her thoughts completely. Her mind was weak and exhausted and she had no power to fight Adam anymore. I got up from David's lap and kissed him quickly. He glanced at me absently and immersed himself back in his book. I went to Clarissa and pressed her into my arms. She sighed tiredly and buried herself deep in my embrace. Although my daughter was clearly taller than me, she managed to dig into my arms like a small baby and I held her tightly while I petted her silky blond hair.

  “This has to end,” I mumbled to her hair and felt her nodding lightly. She knew, without a word, what I meant.

  I marched angrily to the front door and glanced at the men around the table. “Joshua and Daniel, I need you to come with me.” When they didn't move, I snapped. “Now! We're going for a morning jog.”

  Tiamhaidh looked at me, surprised, but he saw that this was not the place to ask questions. Joshua and Daniel looked confused, but were on their way to the front door. Bruun and Flow, our shepherd dogs, spun wildly at their feet, but I ordered them away. I felt their disappointment like a stab in my mind, but where I was going, I couldn't take them. There their lives would have no value and I could only hope that taking Joshua and Daniel with me would guarantee my getting out of there without a scratch. I smiled to the others constrainedly and left without any explanation. The moment the door slammed shut, I had Daniel on my back.

  “What's going on, Fia?” He asked demandingly. “Where are we actually going?”

  Joshua didn't say a word. He just kept looking at me searchingly. I think he knew where I wanted to take them and since Daniel didn't seem to notice his bloodthirsty grin, I decided to stay quiet and kept walking.

  As soon as I reached the woods and could slip safely under the trees, I stopped. I glanced at the men and grinned tiredly. In a few seconds I shifted my shape to a golden brown wolf and stared at them with my eyes of gold. How many times during these years had I dreamed of this moment? How many times had I hoped for this opportunity to change my shape in this carefree way, and now when I could truly do so, I had to do it out of necessity. I knew that the only way to get close enough to Adam was by being a wolf. As a human, I couldn't track him ever, and even though he was a master of hiding, I as a wolf was so out of his league that he had no chance against me. Joshua shrugged and grinned at Daniel. In a trice he was a wolf too, leaving Daniel no choice but to do the same or go back home.

  We lumbered side by side, deeper in the woods, leaving only some airy footprints on the frosty ground. Once in a while, I whiffed the moss and some boughs under the young trees, as I knew that at some point Adam had to have left at least some marks. Daniel and Joshua settled for staying behind me as they trusted me to lead us to our prey. At this point we shared our minds so completely that they knew exactly what I had in mind.

  Adam had built several small shelters nearby our house, but I sensed that he didn't spend his time in them except when he was spying on Clarissa. He had to have a more permanent base somewhere further and since the woods weren't endless, I was sure that sooner or later we would find him. I let the autumn sun warm my fur and enjoyed my wolf being. My paws sank in the soft moss and left their prints there for a while. My snout got wet from the dew droplets that were still glittering on the grass. The sun had melted almost all of the frost and even though there was a light ice-cold breeze that cooled the woods, my fur was warm and the light breeze couldn't freeze me. I felt an irresistible desire to howl and could barely control myself as we continued our silent search. I knew that even the smallest error would reveal us to Adam, although I was pretty sure he already knew we were looking for him.

  It took us almost three hours to get to the square where the trees, brought down by the storm, lay on top of one another. If we hadn't crossed Adam's hiding place, we might have missed it, since it was extremely well hidden and very unnoticeable. Thick branches of fir hid a small cave that was next to an abandoned fox's nest. When a fox's smell was mixed with a wolf's, the result was a total mess of smells that could confuse even the most meritorious hunter.

  A light breeze blew a hint of something familiar to my snout and we decided to dig deeper and look particularly under the fallen trees. Adam was there. He was lying, rolled up like a ball, very silent, and trying not to breathe. Despite the dim light in the nest, I saw him clearly enough to send a strict command to him through my mind. “Show yourself!” I commanded and added a painful stab that I knew would hurt his mind.

  Adam didn't move an inch. I tightened my grip and stroked him again, faster and harder. He squealed and
stood up. Joshua and Daniel had moved beside me and were staring at Adam with their canine teeth revealed, growling threateningly. “Sofia,” Adam croaked with an effort. “You found me quite quickly.” “Where are the others?” I pressed him hard. Adam's eyes gleamed dangerously. “There are no others.” “You don't think I would believe that no one knows that you're here, not even Gunward?” I grunted in his mind. “Oh, he knows alright, at least by now, but he's not coming unless you call him,” Adam mocked.

  In my mind I saw David lying on our couch, relaxed, and me snuggling in his arms. I saw his smile full of warmth and his deep blue eyes and I knew it was not the time to call Gunward, not yet. I actually didn't even want him to come, not now when everything was almost back to normal between me and David. I also knew that Adam knew that.

  I growled at him, frustrated. “What do you want?” “Clarissa. Give me Clarissa and I'll leave you alone,” Adam claimed boldly. “You're insane! You have no right to claim Clarissa and you know that. If you agree to leave now, we can forget that you were even here.” “No, Sofia. This time that won't work. I'm not going anywhere,” Adam revealed his teeth lightly, but stopped threatening me at once when Joshua and Daniel took a step towards him. “It's my birthright to claim her to be mine and you know that well enough. Why do you deny me that while you give it to the other males?”

  I didn't answer him, but instead I revealed my fangs and growled. “What do you want for leaving?” I asked. Adam looked at me and this time I thought I felt some kind of uncertainty coming from him. “Just give me an equal chance, like you gave the others.”

  I could sense his fear and this time I was really confused. He was truly scared of my denial. “What do you mean? What kind of chance are you talking about? I don't understand,” I wiped his thoughts with wonder. “I want the same kind of chance that you gave the other shape shifters. I will honor your rules and if Clarissa does not choose me, I promise you, I'll be gone for good.”