Ghost Moon

Table of Contents

PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF RUTH GLICK

WRITING AS REBECCA YORK

“Action packed . . . and filled with sexual tension . . . a grippingthriller.” —
The Best Reviews

“A steamy paranormal . . . danger, shape-shifters, and hot romance. The best of everything. Brava.”

—
Huntress Book Reviews

“A compulsive read.” —
Publishers Weekly

“York delivers an exciting and suspenseful romance with paranormal themes that she gets just right. This is a howling good read.” —
Booklist

“Mesmerizing action and passions that leap from the pages with the power of a wolf’s coiled spring.” —
BookPage

“Delightful . . . [with] two charming lead characters.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“Rebecca York delivers page-turning suspense.”

—Nora Roberts

“[Her] prose is smooth, literate, and fast-moving; her love scenes are tender yet erotic; and there’s always a happy ending.” —
The Washington Post Book World

"She writes a fast-paced, satisfying thriller.” —UPI

"Clever and a great read. I can’t wait to read the final book in this wonderful series.” —
ParaNormal Romance Reviews

KILLING MOON
EDGE OF THE MOON
WITCHING MOON
CRIMSON MOON
SHADOW OF THE MOON
NEW MOON
GHOST MOON

BEYOND CONTROL
BEYOND FEARLESS

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s 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.

GHOST MOON

A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / May 2008

Copyright © 2008 by Ruth Glick.

Excerpt from
Eternal Moon
by Rebecca York copyright © 2008 by Ruth Glick.

All rights reserved.
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eISBN : 978-1-4406-3194-8

BERKLEY® SENSATION
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
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BERKLEY SENSATION and the “B” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

PROLOGUE

THE TWO WEREWOLVES
were out for blood and too inexperiencedto think of death—their own or the other’s.

They had fought over a flirtatious little brunette, and neitherone of them was willing to say she was just a temporary whim. So they met in a patch of Maryland woods, far from the haunts of men—each prepared to rip the hide off the other.

They had driven in separate cars to the dueling grounds, neither one of them bringing a second because this was a very private affair.

Back into the mists of time, the adults of the Marshall clan had trusted no one besides their life mates. Certainly not their fathers or brothers or cousins. They were all alpha males, all leaders of their own pack. And the only individualsadmitted to that pack were their wives and children.

But neither had yet reached the age of bonding. And neitherof them knew how to control the rage that flared in the animal portion of their spirit.

So they pulled their cars into the woods, then went to separate thickets to strip off their clothing and say the ancientchant that changed them from man to wolf.

Neither of them understood the words. They only knew the ritual had been passed down from father to son through the ages.

Then they trotted into the clearing that they had selected and faced each other, eyes blazing and muscles tensed. One of them howled, then the other, before they began to circle— looking for an opening.

At the beginning, someone might have backed down. Yet pride and the violent instincts of their kind outweighed good sense. One sprang, knocking the other to the ground, and the fight was on.

They rolled across the forest floor, each trying to score a bite that would punish the other enough to make him back off.

Then one lost all sense of proportion and went for his opponent’s throat, his teeth sinking through thick fur into vulnerableflesh. And when he felt the other combatant go limp, he raised his head in alarm, then took a quick step away from the shaggy form sprawled on the ground.

His cousin lay still, blood gushing from his neck, his expressionas astonished as that of the wolf who had taken the fateful bite.

The attacker stepped back, saying the ancient chant in his mind, feeling his muscles and tendons contort as he changed from wolf to naked man. Ignoring the wounds on his shouldersand ribs, he knelt beside the injured animal.

“Caleb, Jesus. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean . . .”

His cousin raised dull eyes. His jaws moved, and his face contorted, and then he, too, made the transformation from wolf to man.

He lay breathing shallowly, then tried to push himself up, before falling back against the blood-soaked leaves, his fingersclawing the ground.

“Jesus,” Aden repeated, fear leaping inside his chest. “We’ve got to get you to a doctor. We can say . . . an animal attacked you.”

But it was already too late. The life in his cousin’s eyes flickered, then went out.

Aden looked around wildly, wondering what the hell he was going to do.

His heart pounding, he went back to where he’d left his clothes and swiftly pulled on his khaki pants and long-sleevedshirt.

It struck him, then, that he had killed a man. Well, a werewolf.His cousin. He had heard whispered tales in the family of werewolves who had disappeared over the years. Caleb lived alone, the way they all did before they bonded with a life mate. And his job took him away from home for long periodsof time. It might be days, weeks before anyone realized he was missing. And there was nothing to tie his disappearanceto his cousin.

Still, it seemed wrong to leave his naked body in the woods. So he retrieved Caleb’s discarded clothing, dressing him in his jeans and shirt before pulling on his shoes and socks.

As he worked, his mind churned, making feverish plans. He’d have to drive the abandoned Ford somewhere else. Maybe he should push it off a cliff into the river. That might be the best option. Or maybe not.

Well, he didn’t have to figure out that part yet. But he’d better not drive too far, because he’d have to race back here in wolf form and . . .

Bury the body. He couldn’t leave the evidence. Or could he? What evidence was that, exactly? That a man had been killed by an animal in the woods.

He shuddered, and a surge of family loyalty made his throat tighten. He might have killed another one of the Marshallmen in a stupid fight, but he wouldn’t abandon him out here in the open—to be torn apart by forest animals.

He gritted his teeth. He had come out here roaring mad over a woman who wasn’t important. And now he was reapingthe consequences.

CHAPTER ONE

Quinn had come
through the portal between the worlds six times now, into this strange place—the Maryland woods.

She took a deep breath of the air. It smelled different. In her universe, she would have caught the tang of wood smoke. Here, underlying the scent of pine trees, she detected exhaust from automobiles and smoke from factories—even this far from the city called Baltimore, so unlike anything in her world.

She had been there a few times, riding in a car with Rinna and Logan Marshall. Although they were both werewolves, they were very different from each other. Rinna was from Quinn’s world. Logan was from this universe, where few people had the psychic talents that were so important to the lives of Quinn’s people.