CHOCOLATE TEMPTATION
A.C. MASON
LYRICAL PRESS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/
To my daughter and son. You both bring the most joy and fulfillment I’ve ever known in my life
Acknowledgements
Mary Murray, my amazing editor. You continue to push and teach me. Thank you for all your hard work.
Foreword
I stumbled across the Shunu, one of three sons of a god known by some of the Turkic peoples, while doing research. Shunu is a lupine–relating to a wolf or wolves–deity and my shifters are his descendants. From that grew the mythology of the Shunu race ancestry. In Chocolate Damsel and Chocolate Temptation, we journey back to 1940, as Nazi Germany was invading European Nations. Given my own family survived the occupation of Belgium and I grew up hearing stories of those frightening times, I wanted to expand the reach of their voices.
Chapter 1
Sunlight glimmered off the snow as the frozen landscape unfolded before Alexia Pane. Her mate and the Alpha, Engle VanWolf, cocooned her protectively in his arms. The motion of the train caused her stomach to quiver with uneasiness. Over the past few days, his edginess had made her tense, and when she had asked him about what was going on he’d changed the subject. He too lay awake, but did not speak or move.
“Are you losing interest in me?” she asked.
“No.” He rolled her toward him.
She traced the melted flesh of the scar where an eye had once been before humans had hunted down their kind.
His lone blue eye held her gaze. “How could I, my witch? You are what fills me with joy,” he whispered against her neck. “I’m sorry if I’ve seemed distracted. I’m focused on getting the pack out of Europe and timing is crucial in pulling this off.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. Another foretelling dream he didn’t wish to speak of had awakened him. She could tell by the tone of his voice and the worry emanating from him. These days her empathic abilities dulled from the overpowering emotions all around her. On a moment’s notice, he would have the pack doing the opposite of what he’d ordered them to do. The pack was accustomed to doing as told. She still struggled with unexpected change and the swiftness in which it usually happened.
“I promise when we reach Venezia, Italy I’ll sneak off with you before our ship departs and we’ll enjoy a night in the city of romance, my witch.” He kissed her lips.
She pulled back, rolled away from him, clutching the sheet, and sat up. His frequent vanishing to deal with details left her in the care of Cathen. Since she’d paired with VanWolf, Cathen could barely look at her or be cordial.
“What’s wrong?” His large hand rubbed her back.
“Why do you always make Cathen responsible for my safety?” It was one too many uncomfortable situations for her to cope with. Especially lately. She got on well with all the other betas. So why did she need to be left with Mr. Epsilon-Beta?
VanWolf sat, scooping her into his arms. “We’ve been through this. I know that some of the Shunu customs, rituals and beliefs are difficult to understand. The only expectation of those who live among the pack is that they live our way. Cathen is my Epsilon-Beta, bearer of the eclipse and holder of our limits. He is also the rightful heir of the pack, but for centuries he would not take the role. After Mateo was killed, Cathen reluctantly agreed only recently.”
Alexia had sat with the young of the pack during story time as the Shunu beliefs, customs and rituals were passed down through fables and oral history. “Explain to me again why an Epsilon-Beta exists.”
“The first of the Shunu, the Great Wolf-Spirit, our messiah, set out into battle with the best of his fighters, leaving the pack to the young and inexperienced. His enemy, Lord of the Underworld, Erlik, was cunning and knew that the way to break the spirit of the Shunu was to take those connected to our soul. Erlik sent his minions into the pack and slaughtered the women and young. High from his victory against the Lord of the Underworld, the Great Wolf-Spirit returned to the pack with the warriors to find those he loved murdered. From that day forth, the strongest of the betas was to watch over the pack in the Alpha’s absence, thereafter known as the Epsilon-Beta. He shall remind the leader of our Shunu limitations. Fallout from those events also is where marking our mates Shainu and Epsishainu came from.”
His sister, Griselda, was a better storyteller than he was. Her animated retelling brought the stories to life.
“I like Shainu, when we mate and our spirit forms become one.” But it could not be performed in places where the light of their spirits could be seen by humans.
He chuckled. “You and I both.”
“What is Epsishainu?” Another term she was hearing for the first time. That seemed to be happening a lot these days.
He stroked her head. “You are filled with questions today.”
When VanWolf knew she wouldn’t like what she’d learn, he would try and get to the bottom of why she was asking so many questions. He didn’t understand that at times she felt out to sea with no sense of direction in his world, which made her feel distant from him and the pack. She didn’t like that feeling.
She nodded. “There are instances when the pack speaks of what’s believed to be common knowledge, but I have no clue what they are referring to, and explaining to me sucks the energy from an upbeat conversation.”
“They don’t mind.” He lifted her onto his lap, and seemed to stare into her soul with his lone blue eye. “Epsishainu is an insurance policy to ensure the safety of the mate of the Alpha and his young if he were to die. The mark of the Alpha’s mate would brand into the Epsilon-Beta as the threads of the pack members pass through him and he assumes his role as the new Alpha. She would become his chosen. This way she and her pups will be connected to his soul and the new Alpha could never harm them.”
“But what if the Epsilon-Beta hates the Alpha’s mate, then what?”
“That’s impossible.” He shook his head. “No pack member could hate another. Not all the personalities blend well, but our hearts and souls are connected through our bonds to the pack.”
At times he didn’t understand her fears as an outsider. She hadn’t been born of their pure Shunu blood, rather, at the hands of a madman. “But what would happen if the Epsilon-Beta hated her?”
“Epsishainu would change his heart.” Streaks of sunlight illuminated his features. “The power of this bond comes from the spirit world and cannot be fought.”
As she’d suspected, after the Alpha died came another Shunu rule, and she didn’t have the right to reject it. That was why she needed to be with Cathen when VanWolf was not there. If something were to happen to VanWolf, she would be in the care of her new mate, Cathen. Amid all the stress of the exodus out of Europe, her joyous news seemed ill timed.
“I have something to tell you.” She knew he should be told.
“This sounds serious.” VanWolf cupped her face in his hand. “What is it?”
“I…” She shook her head. “No, no, we are expecting.”
“Expecting?” His unscarred eye widened. “As in pups?”
Tears