Leader of the Pack by Leighann Phoenix Page A

in shock as she watched the wolf turn into a man.
    She was snapped out of her realization as she heard the whispers getting closer. No one seemed to know what was coming. She tried to say something to the man and woman she had been watching but no sound came from her mouth, no matter how hard she tried. The voices were getting louder and more insistent. Aislinn felt compelled to move on. She knew there was more she was meant to see.
    As she came out of the woods she passed a large standing stone and found herself in a kind of clearing. All around her there were men and women, wolves and women, wolves and men, and pairs of wolves rutting. The sounds of intense, unrestrained pleasure echoed through the clearing. She looked around at where she was. There was something here she was meant to understand. But she was missing it.
    She turned and looked back the way she came. The voices were getting closer and she was getting scared. She could feel a hot breath on the back of her neck and eyes on her body. She knew that whatever was coming knew that she was here. She found herself staring at the stone she had passed. There was an elaborate carving on the large stone, but she didn’t know what it meant. When she turned around she realized that she was standing in a circle of large stones. They were all covered in symbols. She looked from one to the other. They were Gaelic. Why were there Gaelic symbols here? Aislinn counted nine stones in all.
    As she started to wonder where she was and why all the other scenes were books and this one was a circle of standing stones, she noticed the couple rutting in the center of the circle. Actually they were fucking in the middle of the entire wolven orgy. The apparently female wolf on the bottom was snow white. She was panting and heaving with the effort of the large black wolf on top of her. He was coal black. As she looked into the animal’s eyes her heart shattered. She knew that it was Cullen. This was his wedding that everyone had been talking about. The snow white wolf was Jenna. Aislinn was watching him fuck her. The voices were getting closer but Aislinn didn’t care anymore.
    Suddenly an icy hand was on her shoulder. Aislinn turned around to see Rafe staring into her eyes. The voices stopped. “You see,” he said. “Your destiny is with me. You’re better than this. Do you want to be some beast, rutting in the mud, birthing puppies,” he asked with disgust. “He doesn’t want you anyway.”
    * * * *
    Cullen grabbed up some napkins and had sopped up most of the water before he noticed the glazed over blank stare on Aislinn’s face. She had gone deathly pale and there were beads of sweat on her forehead. “Aislinn,” he said and waited.
    When she didn’t respond, he took hold of the papers and pulled them out of her hand. Cullen reached out and touched her face. Suddenly she gasped and looked wildly around the room as if she didn’t recognize where she was. “Rafe,” she hissed in a terrified whisper, pulling away from Cullen as if he had just bit her.
    At that point Cullen didn’t care what anyone thought. He virtually jumped the booth to sit next to Aislinn and take hold of her. She was trembling and fighting him. It took a moment for her to come back to reality. By then there were a number of people staring in concern. A glare from Cullen sent most of the back to their own business.
    “Shh, Aislinn. I’ve got you,” he whispered softly. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he promised.
    Aislinn felt him wrapped around her. He was the safety that she never seemed to have no matter where she went. At first she was afraid she would start to cry again. When the tears didn’t come she figured that she must have used up her allotment for the day. She pushed him back from her. “You won’t be able to stop it. He’s coming and he’s going to get what he wants and then me as well.”
    Cullen let her push him away. The deadly tone in her voice seemed to reach into him and