Accepting the Moon: Prequel (Moonrising Book 1) (5 page)

BOOK: Accepting the Moon: Prequel (Moonrising Book 1)
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Jaxon

“Mena, it‘s me,” Jaxon said. “I won‘t hurt you. Calm down.”

“Let me go!” Mena screamed. “You‘re not turning me into one of those—those
things
that Marc is.” She jerked away and he let her go. She stared at him as she tried to catch her breath. “Why would you want to turn me into one of them?” Her lower lip trembled. “And how—
how
is that even possible?” she yelled, but Jaxon didn‘t speak. She wouldn‘t be ready to listen to anything he had to say until she calmed down a lot.

Mena turned her head to look back down the hallway, and then in the other direction. “How do I get out of here? I need to leave this place.”

“You can‘t leave,” Phoenix‘s sultry voice said from behind Mena, and her head whipped around in surprise. It was clear she was questioning why she hadn‘t seen anyone where the male stood now, so close to her.

Jaxon and Mena both stiffened as Phoenix‘s long fingers came up to caress Mena‘s cheek. “Don‘t—” he started.

Ice blue eyes turned slowly to glare at Jaxon, cutting his sentence short, but Phoenix never removed his hand from Mena‘s face. “She is a pretty little thing, isn‘t she, Jaxon?”

Jaxon hesitated only a moment. “Y—yes, Master.”

Phoenix nodded once and pursed his lips together into a thin line, as if contemplating what to do next. Looking back to Mena, he said, “I‘m sure you have questions. I swear nothing will happen to you until after you have made your decision.”

“My—my decision?” Mena stuttered out.

Phoenix simply removed his hand from her face and held it out in the direction of his quarters.

Mena

“Have a seat, Mena,” the man said.

He was one of the most attractive men I had ever seen in my life. Wavy, chestnut hair fell nearly to his shoulders and loose curls framed his face. His intense eyes, that seemed to bore through to my very soul, were the color of ice glaciers. Against the light bronze color of his skin, they appeared to glow as they studied me.

I tried not to stare at him, but it was quite difficult not to with what he was wearing, or rather what he wasn‘t wearing. Broad shoulders complemented a well-defined, shirtless chest. His sculpted torso was lean and would put any male model that I had ever seen to shame. The faded blue jeans he wore fit him extremely well and his feet were bare. There was nothing feminine about him, but he was so handsome he was pretty. An Adonis reincarnated perhaps.

The clearing of a throat snapped me out of admiring my captor, and I glanced over to see Jaxon with his hand held out to a couch. He raised an eyebrow nervously, and I looked back to the other male. He was waiting for me to obey him; that was clear now. When he‘d offered me a seat, he had actually given me an order to sit down, his seductive voice only making it sound like he was giving me an option.

I inhaled deeply as I sat on the edge of the cushion.

The corner of Adonis‘ mouth twitched in amusement. I found that irritated me profusely, but I wasn‘t sure if it was my anger or the lust that he was stirring in me that caused me so much agitation.

My hands curled into tight fists on my lap to keep from fanning my blouse. It was hot in the room all of a sudden.

“My name is Phoenix. I hear you‘ve met Jaxon. He informed me of what occurred with the werewolf leader and his pack—”

Despite how much I wanted to cry, I laughed instead. “Werewolf?”

Phoenix‘s eyes darted to Jaxon. “I thought you said she knew.”

“She saw him change. It doesn‘t mean her mind accepts it. She‘s in denial.”

“Wait, you‘re saying that werewolves are real, and that a man I have been married to for over twelve years is one of them?” I said, and didn‘t feel like laughing anymore. I actually felt a little dizzy.

The two men stared at one another for a long moment before Phoenix looked back to me. “Not just a werewolf, Mena, but
the
werewolf. He was the pack leader. We‘ve been trying to discover his true identity for over a decade, so we could ruin him publicly, but he covered his tracks well.”

I sat there and tried to process what they were telling me, that my husband turns into a monster once a month. They didn‘t look crazy, but they sure sounded like it. I shook my head. Werewolves weren‘t real. But if they weren‘t, then what the hell had Marc turned into?

I locked eyes with Jaxon and remembered an earlier question I had asked him that had gone unanswered. “Why would you want to turn me into one of them?”

He wasn‘t the one who answered.

“You already are one of them,” Phoenix said, and I reached out and grabbed the arm of the couch to steady my swaying body. “Actually, you are now
the
one, Mena. You became one of them the moment your husband bit you, and you became the pack leader a second later when you put a silver bullet through his heart. To become a pack leader, you have to take the life of the current one.”

I couldn‘t breathe.

Chapter 9

Phoenix

The girl intrigued him. That was a fact, perhaps even more so than any other female he had ever met before. And that was saying a lot for this one.

Jaxon had been right: she was enchanting, but Phoenix had killed plenty of beautiful women, as well as not, in his long life. Her being the new werewolf pack leader only made him want to drain her of the enemy blood that much more.

Was he toying with her? Maybe. Mayhap it was the way Jaxon had begged him to spare her life that kept him from breaking her neck then and there. Could be. Jaxon had never really asked him for anything, which was why he still held second in command status.

The guy had said it was his fault entirely the girl had been bitten in the first place, but Phoenix knew that to be untrue. He was the only one in the area strong and fast enough to take on the pack leader. And that‘s when Phoenix realized why the girl‘s heart was still beating: she was a human girl—the wife of the pack leader no less—and she did something he himself had been unable to do since the male had defeated the previous pack leader: kill him.

She couldn‘t stay here, he decided. She belonged with her pack. Their leader belonged with the mutts. Of course, if they returned her to them like she was now, they would see how weak she was and she would be dead before her first change.

The thought angered him, and he grew even more pissed because it had. She was a werewolf; why should he care if the beast was killed?

Disgusted with himself, Phoenix turned away from them to give the girl privacy while Jaxon consoled her.

The least he could do was get her cleaned up and fill her stomach while her humanity was still intact.

After making a quick call, Phoenix placed his cell phone on the bar and just watched her. It was obvious Jaxon was enamored with the girl—any fool could see that—and if he turned her into a hybrid—as Jaxon suggested he do—the girl would be sired to him and he would rule over two-thirds of the underworld. It wasn‘t the worst idea Jaxon had ever come up with; it was actually a pretty damn good one, but Phoenix knew what would happen to him if he sired her. He wouldn‘t be able to let Jaxon have her, because he would want her.

Phoenix shook his head at the thought.
No, I will not share my throne with anyone.

Mena

A soft knock at the door made me jump to my feet in alarm.

Something was seriously wrong with my body. I had never moved so fast before, and the achiness I had felt after waking earlier was almost gone. My eyes widened in stunned disbelief as I glanced down at the wound where Marc had bit me. The dried blood was still all over the tattered material of my pants, but there were only faint pink lines where the injury had been.

My focus shot back to the door when the knock sounded again and a low growl echoed throughout the room. I gasped and slapped a hand over my mouth when I realized it was me who had done it.

Jaxon cautiously took my hand and helped me to sit back down on the couch. “Calm down, Mena. It‘s just—”

“Enter,” Phoenix said, as if my behavior was normal for him, or maybe he had been expecting it. Well, I hadn‘t been expecting it, and it was definitely
not
normal for me to go around growling at sudden sounds.

“Oh, God,” I said, and began to tremble. “I‘m a dog.”

“Shh… It‘s okay—” Jaxon tried again to comfort me, but I didn‘t need comforting; I needed freaking answers… and a cure!

I shot to my feet again and hurriedly put some distance between us. I warned him with my eyes to stay away.

He was either smart or scared, because he only stood there with his palms up. His stance was defensive, so I didn‘t feel threatened by him. Taking in a deep breath, I relaxed a little, but didn‘t go back to sit beside him. I wasn‘t ready for that just yet. I didn‘t know if I ever would be. I could tell he was doing everything in his power to try to make me comfortable, but his gestures were having the opposite effect on me.

“Sit them on the table. Thank you. You may go,” Phoenix said, and I looked over to him in time to see the girl I had awoken to earlier closing the door behind her as she left the chambers.

There was no expression on Phoenix‘s face when I looked back at him.

“I had a hot meal and dry, warm clothing brought in. Eat while the food is still warm, and you can use my lavatory to clean yourself afterward.” Phoenix lowered his head and his brow furrowed in what appeared to be confusion or thought. I only stared at him. Slowly taking the back of the chair in his hand, he pulled it out from the table and gestured with his other hand for me to take the seat. “The steak is not poisoned. However you preferred your meat before, I think you will discover rare to be your preference now.” My nose scrunched up in distaste, and he grinned. “I swore no harm would come to you until after you made your decision, Mena. Please eat something.”

I still didn‘t know what decision it was that I had to make, but an amazing scent came from the plate and I didn‘t care about anything in that moment except eating. My stomach rumbled and my feet involuntarily moved to the table.

Chapter 10

Phoenix

He waited until he heard the bathroom door click shut before turning to Jaxon.

“I think you need to leave.”

Jaxon‘s eyes widened. “But why? Mena needs me here—”

BOOK: Accepting the Moon: Prequel (Moonrising Book 1)
6.68Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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