Table of Contents
Table of Contents
His Desire Sealed Her Fate
Accept me, a harsh, husky voice demanded above her.
Like quicksilver, excitement thrummed through her veins. Her breath rushed from her lungs. She would not deny him. In doing so, she would deny herself. She closed her eyes as every part of her loosened. Finally, she would know how it felt.
In answer, she undulated beneath his hardness as it pressed for entry.
He put his lips to her ear. Say the words: I accept you.
She gasped at the raw passion of his words, the tone possessive and commanding.
Say it! he hissed. His body coiled above hers, like a serpent ready to strike.
I-I accept you, she breathed.
Praise for the novels of Karin Tabke
A blast of hot air; a fun female fantasy; an erotica novel with a good plot.
Fresh Fiction
Tabke masterfully creates sexual tension.
Romantic Times
I enjoyed this book not just for its eroticism, but for the powerful storytelling.
Romance Junkies
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This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright 2011 by Karin Tabke.
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PRINTING HISTORY
Heat trade paperback edition / May 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tabke, Karin.
Blood law : a blood moon rising novel / Karin Tabke.Heat trade paperback ed.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-101-51431-3
I. Title.
PS3620.A255B56 2011
813.6dc22
2010049800
http://us.penguingroup.com
To Sylvia for lighting the fire,
and to Bonnie, a true heroine
The Truth
In medieval Europe, wolves were feared and looked upon as the scourge of the earth. Many people lost their lives to wolf attacks. In 1281 Edward I, Longshanks, king of England, commissioned the great hunter, Peter Corbet, to eliminate the wolves in England. Peter, who would come to be known as Peter the Wolf, accepted the charter with bloodthirsty gusto, and soon hundreds upon thousands of wolves were slain. The devastation of wolves did not end with their demise in England and Scotland. As the centuries passed and the wolves fled into other parts of Europe, the hunt continued.
The Lore
In Peters time, there was a deformed wolf, Fenrir, an outcast born of an alpha and his mate.
All of the alphas, even Fenrirs own sire, were so disgusted by Fenrirs deformities that they banished him from all the packs. Furious that his own kind would shun him, Fenrir struck a deal with Gilda, the Druid witch of the Marches. She would grant the outcast wolf alpha strength and immortality in return for the slaying of twin wolves and the delivery of their souls every one hundred years.
Fortified and hungry for vengeance, Fenrir offered his services to Peter Corbet.
With Fenrirs help, Peter hunted the packs and slew them. Only the strongest survived. Most fled north into Scotland, then into Norway and Russia. In Russia the great pack, Vulkasin, was born. Another pack fled south into France and across the Great Pyrenees where they settled and coexisted with the fierce Basque people. There, the formidable Mondragon pack multiplied and thrived.
Before Peter Corbets death, King Edward rewarded the great hunter for his fearlessness with a gold ring fashioned in the image of a howling wolf. Set as the eye, a rare, bloodred ruby. Peter dubbed the ring the Eye of Fenrir. And it was passed down to the eldest Corbet son.
The wolf hunts did not end with Peters death. With Fenrirs guidance, Peters progeny picked up where their sire left off, as did their descendants through the ages, who would come to be known as Slayers.
The centuries passed, the hunted wolves moved into the vast Siberian wasteland and then across the great Bering Sea and into the New World. There the mystic Inuit people who had great respect for the wolves befriended them. But the Slayers, led by the vengeful Fenrir, followed.
On a fateful night, one that coincided with the sun reflecting on the full lunar eclipse and turning it bloodred, the Slayers, led by Fenrir, attacked the great wolf packsboth the Mondragon in Europe and the Vulkasin in the New World. Both packs fought valiantly. But Fenrirs vengeance was too potent.
Seeing that the great packs were on the verge of extinction, Singarti, the great spirit guide of the Inuit, called to the gods for intervention. Lightning struck the master Slayer known as the jager, killing him. Singarti took the Eye of Fenrir from his hand and turned it on its namesake, forcing Fenrirs spirit into the ring. Singarti cast a sealing spell, trapping Fenrir within, then buried the ring deep into the frozen tundra of the North.
Singarti knew for the wolves to survive into the next millennia they must be able to shift into human form. And so she raised her arms to the great gods once more and asked that they have mercy on the wolves. The gods were benevolent that day. The surviving wolves shifted into human form and were called Lycan, only to take their natural wolf form for twenty-four hours during each full moon or when provoked by great rage. Singarti further protected the Lycan with the gift of her daughter, Sasha, to the great Vulkasin alpha, Arnou. With an infusion of Inuit blood, the Lycan thrived.
This infuriated Fenrir. Through the confines of the ring, he called upon the dark gods and demanded they favor him with a chance to raise his Slayers against the Lycan. And the gods scoffed but promised him this: when he found one who was equal to him in power but pure of heart, the gods would release him from the ring and grant him the chance to defeat the Lycan on the next rising of the Blood Moon.
