Chosen Darkness (Chosen Series) (2 page)

Falyn got a long-winded letter from Daisy not long after her first change, telling her she was, in fact, not her child. Daisy found her in the back of her truck as a baby. But not a normal baby. The woman she had thought was her mother found her as a pup.

The seemingly harmless anklet she always wore turned out to be the only thing stopping her from being a monster. A simple act of rage led to her first change: she was sick of the reminder of her past and had cut the leather anklet free sending it back to her mother.

It was not till she got the letter from Daisy, her so called mother, she learned the anklet was charmed to keep her from changing. Afterwards, Falyn had tried to avoid anything related to the other world, but after her first turn she knew that was not going to work. She needed help with the werewolf thing.

However, finding out where to go for help turned into a tough job, but with some snooping in the right night club she stumbled upon her first full-fledged werewolf pack. This pack only accepted those who had been bitten by a pure wolf. Falyn did not know if she had been bitten but the leader of the pack had agreed to take her in anyway.

The leader was a young man, an Alpha, who was easy to love! Flint was a girl’s eye candy in every way: he was tall, dark and with a body to drool over! At first Falyn had wanted nothing more than to be his mate. She was young back then, only fourteen, and without any knowledge of the werewolf code.

The first thing she had been told after being let into the pack was how each bloodline under the Lycan line was rated. First was the pure blood: those born into the Lycan bloodline. Next was the half-breeds followed by the shadow wolfs, consisting of those that parted ways from the Lycan court. They were ruthless loners and it was best to avoid them. At the bottom were those who had been bitten.

Seemed she had joined the bottom of the food chain.

It was forbidden for any Lycan who had been bitten to mate with any Lycan who had not. The Lycan court did not want anyone’s blood who was not pure mixing in with their line. However, no Lycan, bitten or not, could mix with any other race without facing death, unless their mate was human. Falyn had been turned off by this bit of news, but since she did not have any plans to mate with anyone outside her race, she shrugged it off.

At first Falyn had wanted to be among the pack as much as possible. She lived with them in their large home on the outskirts of the city. She turned with them, she ate with them, and each day spent among Flint’s pack, she fell for him more.

Life for her could not get much better. After years spent in foster homes and state homes, it was nice to have family. Falyn had gotten into trouble for running away from some of her foster homes, branding her a trouble child. Not many families wanted to deal with a difficult youth.

Falyn had tried to slip through the cracks countless times, only to be found. Thanks to her fair hair contrasting so sharply with her dark looks, she stuck out like a sore thumb, easily remembered by people who saw her. So she took to wearing a wig when she went out. Which proved helpful when she turned to stealing to survive.

Life with a pack, regular meals and people who really got her was perfect for Falyn.

The pack consisted of mostly males with only three other females besides herself, two of whom had been turned by their husbands after they had chosen them to be their mate. The other, Ella, had been bitten nearly two hundred years before. She was pretty, yet she was like everyone’s mother so no one seemed to see she was an ideal mate

So being the only logical possible mate for Flint, Falyn felt for sure that when she became of age, he would put his claim on her. So for two years she followed him around like a love-struck fool. Then, on her sixteenth birthday, she made her move.

Flint had always been her ally in everything. He flirted with her shamelessly once she had hit fifteen, so now that she was sixteen she felt more than safe showing him without any doubt she wanted him.

It was a normal weekend. All the boys had gone out to do what boys do. Those who had mates did not stay at the pack house, so only Ella had remained home but she had gone to bed hours ago. It was just the two of them snuggled together on the sofa watching a movie.

Falyn did not even recall what had been on the TV that night, but she did recall everything else.

Flint had his arm around her and every now and then he would run his lips over her throat. It drove her crazy. So the next time he went to do it, she turned her head so her lips met his. The kiss made her knees weak. It was everything a teenage girl hoped her first kiss would be. He let out a growl as he pushed her down on the sofa, covering her body with his.

Falyn let out a moan. She wanted more! She needed his clothes off! She had just pulled his shirt over his head and was about to let him do the same with hers when she heard a loud cough coming from behind her.

Jumping back, Flint turned to see who had ruined their moment. So did Falyn. She was not too shocked to see Ella there, Ella was like a mother to her so she knew she might take offense to Flint trying to claim her on the sofa.

“Flint, a word please,” Ella said softly

Flint gave Falyn a long look before following Ella into the next room. Falyn sat on the sofa waiting unconcernedly for him to come back in.

Yet it was not Flint who came back in, but Ella. Which did have Falyn worried. Why was she putting her nose into Falyn’s business? Flint was the Alpha of the pack so Ella had no place to keep him from what he wanted – or who.

“Falyn, we need to talk,” Ella said.

“Where’s Flint?”

“He went to join the others,” Ella told her calmly.

“Why are you putting yourself in between us, Ella?”

“Because you can’t be his mate, Falyn. You could bring death to this pack.”

“What do you mean?” Falyn demanded.

“You told me you have been a werewolf since you were little. You were found as a pup, right?” Ella inquired gently.

Falyn felt the blood leave her face. Of course, how could she forget the stupid rules! They were thinking she was born a wolf, meaning she was either a pure blood or a half breed!

“I could have been bitten as a babe, you don’t know!”

“I do know, Falyn, that if you had been bitten as a babe, you would have died.” Ella assured her.

The words sank in: she was a pure blood or a half breed, not a bitten wolf. She could not be Flint’s mate. Clearly he was not going to fight the issue. After all, rules were rules.

So, without so much as a goodbye, Falyn left the pack house, never looking back. She had no idea what everyone was up to and she never let herself think about what ifs.

Instead she used her wolf gift of tracking to make ends meet to avoid being at the mercy of anyone’s rules! In her reasoning, how would some in the Lycan court learn she had slept with someone outside the code zone? They couldn’t, Falyn was sure, so she figured there was no need stressing over the whole werewolf code thing any longer.

Now here she was at nineteen and still had not found anyone worth giving herself to. She had worked jobs with all kinds of supernatural beings; she even ran into a few very good looking ones. She had no clue what some of them really where but there had been a few that had been insanely tall and muscular, reminding her of Greek gods! Yet none of them seemed right, so she had given up trying to make a connection. Anything to do with romance and the immortal world just didn’t seem to be for her.

Instead, she focused on work, lingering between the human and the supernatural without being really a part of either.

Falyn sat down at her laptop and screened her email for more work. She’d had a busy week but most of her current cases were finished.

There was one email in her inbox. She read it with her normal blasé attitude. The man’s name was Alex Rave, he was seeking info on a missing child. It had happened years ago however he was hoping her talent could shed some light on the issue. He would meet her when and where she chose.

He didn’t state he was supernatural, it was what most supernatural knew to do, so she figured he had to be among the human world. A missing child was an easy enough task to take on. She emailed him back.

“Meet at Libs diner at ten a.m. tomorrow, bring something that belonged to the missing, 10,000 dollars cash.”

She hit send before heating up some noodles from yesterday while she waited for Mr. Rave to answer back. In less than ten minutes she got a reply.

“Tomorrow at ten and I’ll have your payment.”

It was to the point, just how Falyn liked it.

The next morning she waited in her normal booth, coffee in hand, watching the people coming in, trying to guess which one would be her Mr. Rave. When a tall man entered with dark hair, eyes so deep blue she was amazed by their color, even from across the room, she had a feeling he was going to be her next client. Call it a gut feeling, but she was rather good at figuring out these kinds of things.

Sure enough, Mr. Blue Eyes did come over to her booth. Why he was looking her over, Falyn saw a flash of something flare to life in those cobalt eyes.

“Falyn?” he asked her with a small smirk.

“Yes. I assume you are Mr. Rave?” she replied.

“You would be right. Thank you for agreeing to help me, or rather my boss,” he said with another flash of perfect white teeth.

“If you can pay my fee, then I am willing to do the work,” Falyn told him with her first smile.

She didn’t miss the fact that her smile stopped him cold, but she went on like she had not noticed as she asked him about the missing child.

Alex ordered coffee and a muffin before telling her about her assignment.

“I work as a sort of bounty hunter for hire but usually on dangerous cases,”

“Um, does this child pose a dangerous threat, Mr. Rave?” Her humor was clear.

“No, not the child herself. However, she would no longer still be a child, she’d be an adult now. But no, it is the fact that I won’t be the only one looking for her that makes it dangerous.” His voice held an edge that made her skin tingle.

“I’m having a hard time painting the picture of why you need me then, Mr. Rave?” Falyn felt herself growing more annoyed by the second. If this man didn’t need her, why was he wasting her time and his money?

“The girl is in danger. The less others know of her, the better. I could seek her out myself, but the cost of my method would be too high a risk to her, so that is where your talent comes in. I was told you can find someone without much info on them.” He once more flashed a smile, this one more blade-like than the others.

Falyn studied the man across from her. Somewhere deep inside her she knew that she was going to give into him. Maybe in more ways than one! The idea struck her with a rush of embarrassment as she met his eyes.

“You’re turning a little red,” he observed with a lifted eyebrow.

Falyn felt herself blush even more before dismissing it. Forcing herself to get back to business with a good mental shake, she was once more in control of her emotions.

“Sorry, must be getting warm in here.” She gave a shrug of her shoulders.

He didn’t point out it was the middle of winter and the diner was more like an ice box than anyone would like it to be.

“Do you have something of the girl’s with you?” Falyn asked.

“I do, here.” Alex handed a small leather band to her.

When her hand covered the anklet, she felt a jolt like she always did when she touched something, then a few fuzzy flashes. She was quick to place it in her pocket so it was no longer touching her skin.

“Now, where do we go from here?” Alex asked her.

“I need to go to where the girl was last known to be,” Falyn told him.

“The Oregon Coast so it’ll be a long drive,” Alex said, rubbing his hand through his thick black hair.

“A long drive is fine with me, if you have the time,” Falyn assured him.

Falyn would have gone on the trip even if he’d said the last place was New York, because right now all she wanted to do was be around this handsome stranger.

“My time right now belongs to this case, so I’m ready” he told her with another one of his smiles.

“If you really want to pay me to do your job…” Falyn presumed.

“I can’t finish this job without your skills, Falyn, not without putting the girl at risk.”

His words washed over her, bringing another burn to her cheeks.

Falyn hoped she didn’t look too awestruck. She hesitated for two seconds before asking him to follow her home. She never normally let a client come home with her as she usually tried her best to keep them as far from her personal life as she could. However, she needed to check her email and pack her things before they set off.

“Okay, lead the way,” Tall, Dark and Handsome said as they paid their tab.

Falyn knew she was taking a risk letting him come into her home, she did prided herself on being a great judge of people however. Besides, she hadn’t picked up a bad vibe from him. Lusting after him might be missing with her common sense’s however.

She pushed her lack of judgment out of her mind.

Back home, she sat Alex down on the sofa while she checked her computer. There were two new emails in her inbox. But as she glanced down at them, she felt a rush of fear run down her spine.

“I’m looking for a missing girl. Willing to pay whatever it takes to find her.”

Falyn glanced back at Alex Rave. Biting her bottom lip, she wondered what the hell was going on. This was from a man named Bale, not from a Mr. Rave, but the words stood out:
missing girl.

The next email really sent her over the edge as it too was seeking help in finding a missing girl, but it did not say anything else or even give a name.

Falyn felt she should get to the bottom of this puzzle. Were all these inquiries about the same person? Should she tell Alex about it? No, she had no idea if it was the same girl, so instead she replied to both people telling them she was busy with a case but would let them know when she was free. She hit send. Pushing the strange feelings the emails had caused a side for now.