Hunting Moon (Decorah Security Series, Book #11): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novel (19 page)
Read Hunting Moon (Decorah Security Series, Book #11): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novel Online
Authors: Rebecca York
“In olden times. Now he talks to her, too.”
“And what are you offering me, exactly?” she asked.
“A husband who . . .”
“Husband,” she interrupted. “You said I was your lifemate.”
“Yes. But I’m not going to chain you in a cave. We’d be married. Like Cole and Emma,” he said. “Or my cousin Ross and his wife, Megan.”
“Tell me about Cole and Emma.”
“His wife is a Decorah agent. But she’s pregnant now and on leave.”
He could see Tory digesting this information.
“You could talk to her,” he said.
“First I want to talk to you. Everything between us happened so fast. I felt like I was drawn to you in a way I couldn’t understand. Is that because you worked some, . .” She stopped and swallowed. “Some werewolf magic on me?”
He clenched and unclenched his hands, ordering himself not to reach for her. Not yet.
“I’ll try to explain. When a werewolf gets to be around thirty, the urge to find a mate is very strong. I was fighting it, thinking that I liked my freedom. Then I saw you, and I knew . . .”
She interrupted him. “So it’s hormones or something. You compelled me to want you.”
“Or it’s like any two people who meet and know they were destined to be together. If you want to call that hormones, you can.”
“And just how many of you are there?”
“I don’t know. I just know about the Marshall clan. Or maybe we’re the only ones. We’re descended from a Druid priest who asked the gods for special powers. And this is what he got. There aren’t many of us because . . .” It was his turn to stop and swallow. “Because not many of us lived. It’s a sex-linked trait, so only male children survived.”
She kept her gaze on him. “You’re saying that if I got pregnant with a girl, she’d die?”
“Ross’s wife, Megan, is a geneticist who has fixed that problem. And the other problem. It used to be that half of us didn’t make it through the first time we changed to wolf form. She came up with a drug combination that got her and Ross’s son through the change. You won’t have to lose children the way my mom and my aunts did.”
“If I stay with you,” she said in a flat voice.
The way she said it made him feel like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, with the ground crumbling under his feet. He could tell her he’d only be half alive if she left him. Maybe she didn’t care.
She was looking down at her hands.
He held his breath as long seconds passed. Finally she raised her head. A spark of hope kindled inside him when he saw that her expression had softened.
“I guess while I was being mad at you, I forgot that I’d be dead or insane if you hadn’t risked your life to get me away from Dr. Son of a Bitch.”
He blinked, then forced himself to say, “You don’t have to pay me back for anything.”
“No. I think you’re right. Something happened between us the first time we saw each other—when I saw that wolf standing below my balcony staring at me. I know you told me, but it’s just sinking in that the wolf was you. And maybe fate or the ancient gods sent you to me.”
When she took a step forward, he did the same. They reached for each other at the same time, and he clasped her to him, so many emotions surging through him. Relief. Joy. And thankfulness.
“Thank God,” he whispered, just before his lips came down hard on hers.
He wanted to be gentle with her. He wanted to show her how civilized a werewolf could be. But urgency compelled him to devour her mouth. Still holding her, he backed up, then reached behind him to click the lock on the door.
The sound made her look up. “We’re at your office.”
“Yeah. But nobody’s going to bother us.”
“Won’t they know?”
“Do you care?”
She considered the question for a split second before clasping her hands around the back of his head and bringing his mouth back to hers.
He reached for the hem of her shirt, sliding his hands inside so that he could run them over the silky skin of her back, then brought them around to pull her bra out of the way and cup her breasts.
She made a sound of approval as he stroked his thumbs across her nipples.
“Brand. Please, I can’t wait.”
He fumbled for the button at the top of her jeans while she did the same for him. He kicked his pants away and carried her to the sofa where he laid her down and covered her body with his.
She cried out as he came into her, then cried out again as she climaxed. And he was right there with her, plunging off a cliff into free fall. But she was there to catch him in her arms.
They clung together, rocking, kissing, and hugging.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he whispered. “I knew I had to do it.”
“I understand why it was so hard.” She raised her head to look him in the eye. “Because I know how panicked I’d be if I thought I was going to lose you.”
Her confession was like a balm to his soul, and he gathered her close. “Never.”
She stayed in his arms for long minutes, then glanced toward the door. “Maybe we should get dressed.”
He was pretty sure nobody was going to come knocking, but he got up and pulled his pants on, and she put herself back together, then stood looking at him.
“What?”
“I still don’t exactly understand what happened with Freemont and Denato. It was Freemont’s men who took me up to the Refuge?”
“Yes. Freemont must have started keeping close tabs on Denato. I think Freemont thought Denato really had been murdered—and this was the ideal time to get information out of you, since you’d be shaken by witnessing the murder of your boyfriend.”
She snorted. “I was shaken, but not because he was my boyfriend.”
Brand nodded. “When a body didn’t turn up, I’m thinking Freemont started thinking Denato had pulled a fast one—and it was even more important to get you to rat him out.”
Her gaze turned inward. “That makes some kind of sense. But today we went into Denato’s apartment. Why couldn’t Freemont do that?”
“We got in because Denato wanted to set a trap for us. Well, for you. Freemont wasn’t going to take that kind of chance without good reason. He knew the place would be guarded if Denato was still around. He wanted specific information before he risked anything. I’m also guessing that Denato didn’t know Freemont had kidnapped you.”
She nodded. “Okay, maybe all of that makes sense.”
“If you’re a mobster with no moral fiber,” Brand answered.
She still looked uncertain. “You said the place was guarded. Why did Denato come in alone?”
“I guess he thought he was only going up against a ditz brain dancer and her friend.”
“Yeah.”
Brand glanced toward the locked door. “Do you want to stay here and maybe order steak sandwiches? I can ditch the bread. Or I can have steak, and you can order a pizza.”
She laughed. “You mean hole up in here until everyone else leaves?”
“If you’re still worried about what they might think.”
“I am—a little,” she admitted as she turned to the mirror and finger combed her hair. “But staying here would make me feel like a coward.”
“We both know you’re not. Not after the way I’ve seen you handle yourself.”
She reached for his hand. “Okay, we’ll go out there—so your friends can stop worrying about us.”
“I think they know we’ve worked things out—either that or killed each other.”
She snorted, then raised her chin. “We’ll be proud and unapologetic—the way we’re going to live the rest of our lives.”
Her words and the look on her face warmed him, and he thanked the ancient gods that he had traveled north to find this amazing woman.
THE END
Thank you for purchasing
HUNTING MOON
, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it.
If you enjoy my books, do me a huge favor. Please go back to www.amazon.com, and leave an honest review. Authors live and die by their reviews. The few extra seconds it takes are really appreciated. Thank you!
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If you enjoyed
HUNTING MOON
, you might also like to read other Light Street Press books by Rebecca York:
Book 1.
On Edge
(a Decorah Security prequel novella)
Book 2.
Dark Moon
(a novel)
Book 3.
Chained
(a novella)
Book 4.
Ambushed
(a short story.
Book 5.
Dark Powers
(a novel)
Book 6.
Hot and Dangerous
(a short story
Book 7.
At Risk
(a novel)
Book 8.
Christmas Captive
(a novella)
Book 9.
Destination Wedding
(a novella)
Book 10.
Rx Missing
(a novel)
Decorah Security Collection
(includes Ambushed, Hot and Dangerous, Chained, and Dark Powers).
Book 1.
Hero's Welcome
(an off-world series short story).
Book 2.
Nightfall
(an off-world series novella)
Book 3.
Conquest
(an off-world series short story)
Book 4.
Assignment Danger
(an off-world novella).
Book 5.
Christmas Home
(an off-world short story).
Book 6.
Firelight Confession
(an off-world novella)
Off-World Collection
(includes Nightfall, Hero’s Welcome, and Conquest)
Rebecca York delivers page-turning suspense.
—Nora Roberts
Rebecca York never fails to deliver. Her strong characterizations, imaginative plots and sensuous love scenes have made fans of thousands of romance, romantic suspense and thriller readers.
—Chassie West
Rebecca York will thrill you with romance, kill you with danger and chill you with the supernatural.
—Patricia Rosemoor
(Rebecca York) is a real luminary of contemporary series romance
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
Rebecca York’s writing is fast-paced, suspenseful, and loaded with tension.
—Jayne Ann Krentz
A New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling Author, Rebecca York is a 2011 recipient of the Romance Writers of America Centennial Award. Her career has focused on romantic suspense, often with paranormal elements.
Her 16 Berkley books and novellas include her nine-book werewolf “Moon” series. KILLING MOON was a launch book for the Berkley Sensation imprint. She has written for Harlequin, Berkley, Dell, Tor, Carina Press, Silhouette, Kensington, Running Press, Tudor, Pageant Books, and Scholastic.
Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times: for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.
Many of her novels have been nominated for or won RT Reviewers Choice awards. In addition, she has won a Prism Award, several New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf awards and numerous other awards.
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http://www.rebeccayork.com
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Published by Light Street Press
Copyright © 2015 by Ruth Glick
Cover design by Earthly Charms
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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.