Ice Moon (18 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jared

B
efore I reached his truck, my Dad turned around and he didn’t look happy. “You failed to mention your mate had a son, or that her boy is a werewolf.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d get here early enough to meet him.” I shook my head. “This is all complicated. I’m in way over my head.”

“I can see that.” He crossed his arms. “If she doesn’t know what you are, I’m assuming she also has no idea about Charlie. Does her son know what he is?”

I nodded. “Last full moon, when I took off, I ended up at her place. He recognized my scent.”

He sighed. “So you told her son, and not her?” Shaking his head, he scoffed and kicked the dirt. “I raised you smarter than this.”

I ground my teeth to keep from raising my voice. “I don’t need you to tell me this is messed up, okay? Trust me, I’m well aware of that. I called you because Damian is staying up in Tahoe, and he dug into her files at Brightwood. He wants to bring Taryn to his father like some sort of sick trophy.”

My dad’s shoulders bunched, his eyes narrowing. “You can’t let that happen. You’ll never see her again.”

“Ease up, Dad.” I raked my hand through my hair. “I understand the stakes, and I’m already scared shitless I’ll lose her. Happy?” When he didn’t respond I went on. “I need to know what happened between Malcolm and Sylvia Severino.” I pointed at the house. “Why did Malcolm keep Taryn a secret from the Pack?”

My dad glanced at the house, then met my eyes. “I can’t tell you that. I didn’t know about her either.” He sighed. “I can tell you after we joined the military and found ourselves in cages at Nero during Operation Moonlight, Malcolm promised he’d get us out. Apparently, the weak link back then was Sylvia. When Severino coaxed us to his facility with promises of serving our country as a special military force, he’d also been telling his wife the same fantasy.”

He rested his forearms on the back of the truck, staring into the distance. “The day Antonio Severino brought her down on his arm, her shock was clear to Malcolm and he risked everything to slip her a note. Two nights later, she came down alone with a key.” His gaze held mine. “Malcolm kept his word and got us out. And maybe hiding your mate was him keeping his word to Sylvia.”

I stepped up to lean on the bed of the pick-up beside him, processing the information. “I bet Sylvia had no idea her husband was using Brightwood as a front to grab young women with psychic abilities for his shifter breeding program either.”

He shrugged. “I never spoke to her, but I’ll never forget the expression on her face that day. Disgust, shock…and fear. Looked to me like she didn’t realize she married a man capable of locking werewolves up like animals.”

“So she was a jaguar shifter too?”

“Yeah, her scent was definitely jaguar. She had a scar on her wrist so I assume he converted her. He talked freely about werewolves being a failure because of our Pack mentality.”

“But why wouldn’t Malcolm tell anyone?”

“That I can’t help with. I’m sure he had his reasons.” He slapped me on the back and pain sizzled through my entire body until my knees gave out. His eyes widened and he caught me around the waist before I hit the ground. “Jared? What’s wrong?”

I tried to speak, but I couldn’t form words. Black spots lingered on the edge of my vision as I pointed to my back. He held me up with one steady arm, and lifted my shirt with his free hand.

“What the hell…” He lowered my t-shirt and met my eyes. “That’s a nasty burn.”

“Yeah.” I bit back the pain as my muscle control gradually returned.

“How? It almost looked like…”

“A hand.”

He nodded.

I ground my teeth. “I’m fine. It’s healing. Jason already took a look.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

I sighed. “Taryn has a rare psychic gift. That’s why Damian wants her so bad.”

“All right…”

“She can start fires with her mind.”

Disbelief was plain in his eyes. “Come again?”

“Pyrokinesis. Look it up on the Internet.”

He pressed his lips together, glancing over his shoulder at my house. “Are you in danger here?”

“No, Dad. I actually got burned when she was trying to keep me from being arrested.”

“But if she can do this, she’s dangerous.”

My voice dropped to a low growl, a warning. “And you and I are both strong enough to kill a man with our bare hands if we had to.”

“I get it.” He rolled his shoulders back. “We’re just as dangerous.”

“She’s afraid of keeping control over her power. That’s why I haven’t told her about me and Charlie yet. The fire is triggered by heightened emotional states.”

“She still needs to know.”

“Yeah, she does.” I sighed. “Charlie wants me to wait until I can shift so she’ll believe me…” An idea crystallized in my head. I glanced at my dad. “Full moon is on Thanksgiving this year, right?”

He nodded. “We’re eating early, so she and Charlie can go home afterward, and you can come shift with the Pack, she’ll never know.”

“No, Dad, this is perfect. If they come to Thanksgiving, I can tell her
and
show her. You can all back me up that werewolves are real, and Lana and Sasha can protect them while we run.”

He checked over his shoulder at the house. “You think you can keep it from her for two more weeks?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “First I have to get her through new moon.” I straightened up. “Damian will be hunting.”

N
ew moon. The jaguar shifters’ moon cycle was opposite of ours. In pitch darkness, the cat came forward, silent and deadly.

This would be the first new moon I wasn’t out patrolling. A few years back, stray jaguars killed humans in our territory, threatening to expose our existence to the community. Since then, my generation of Pack members teamed up to hunt for jaguar shifters during the moonless nights. For a while, we’d succeeded in keeping them away, but almost two years ago we lost one of our own. Gareth’s twin brother Gabe.

The only saving grace was Jason wouldn’t be on patrol without me watching his back. Since Kilani was expecting, he wasn’t about to leave her side while jaguars were in our territory. And Gareth and Nadya would be staying home to watch Malcolm and Madeline while Adam and Aren tracked their jaguar mates to keep them away from humans. Now that our Pack contained two jaguars, things had gotten complicated.

And tonight Jason and I would be out of play, too.

It left Luke and Logan on patrol. They were good fighters, both of them, but I had a bad feeling. Worse, I couldn’t discuss it with Taryn. Every day I confided in her more, and this secret was eating me up inside.

At least there was an end in sight. Two weeks to Thanksgiving, the full moon. I’d be able to tell her about werewolves being real, about me and Charlie, all the cards would be on the table.

I could make it until then.

“Jared, aren’t you going to watch the movie?”

Charlie nursed a bowl of popcorn while dragons soared on the television screen. “Be there in a sec, Buddy.”

I went in the kitchen and slid my arms around Taryn’s waist from behind, pressing a kiss just below her ear. “Can you keep Charlie company for a minute? I need to take Tank out for a bathroom break.”

She leaned back into me and nodded. “Sure.”

“Thanks, I’ll be back in soon.”

I grabbed the leash and called Tank. Usually, I just let him wander around in the yard, but not during new moon. Too risky. I pulled on my jacket and we went out front. The snow crunched under my work boots. Every star was visible up in the dark moonless sky. I took a long, slow breath. Nothing. Good.

Tank finished his business and I walked him around back, still checking for any sign of a jaguar’s scent. As I turned to head to the back door, a gust of cold wind hit my face, and with it…jaguar.

“Shit.” I hustled Tank to the house and put him inside.

“Everything okay?” Taryn looked back at me from the couch.

“Lock the doors. I’ll be back in a second.”

I didn’t mean to panic her, but I also wanted her to be safe. I went around to the garage and grabbed my sledgehammer. I wasn’t a great shot with a gun, but I was dead-on with my sledge. The jaguar would be gone before he ever reached me.

Rounding the corner, my voice dropped to a growl as I struggled to see in the darkness. “Here kitty, kitty…”

I’d been on watch duty once a month for years, but the adrenaline had never had such an impact on me. My family was in that house, and if Damian thought he was going to hurt them, he had another think coming. This wasn’t about territory, or secrecy, this was personal.

The crunch of the snow was amplified in the winter silence. My breath passed my lips in streams of fog as I ventured a few more steps into the shadows, choking up on the sledgehammer.
Come on you bastard, show yourself.

A pine branch snapped to my right and I pivoted to face the threat. A shadow moved closer, devoid of light, darkness and danger stalking forward. I took a practice swing. “What are you waiting for?”

Instead of charging, the giant cat sat down and lifted his front paw, separating his toes he licked at the snow, exposing his deadly claws. I frowned. Was he goading me further away from the porch light?

His dark eyes remained on me as he groomed and waited. I wished I knew for what. Another gust of wind stung my skin right through the jacket. With the jaguar at such close range, his scent was stronger.

And familiar.

“Sebastian?”

The jaguar stood and I readied myself, but he sat again and brought his other paw to his mouth staring me down. In his animal form, he wouldn’t be able to speak or answer any of the rapid-fire questions going through my head, but one thing was clear.

He had no intention of attacking me.

I lowered the head of the hammer onto the snow. “I don’t know why you’re here, but if you try to hurt them, I
will
kill you. I won’t hesitate.”

He flattened his ears with a guttural snarl.

“I’ll take that to mean we understand each other.”

I waited, for what I had no fucking clue, but I did. He didn’t make any threatening moves. My gaze didn’t falter as I picked up the sledgehammer and rested it up on my shoulder. “I’m going inside to protect my family, and I’m sending a text to that cell phone we gave you. Tomorrow you can tell me what the hell this was about.”

Part of me couldn’t believe I was going to walk away. Sebastian could have been Gabe’s killer for all I knew. If Adam had found the jaguar who took our Pack brother’s life, he hadn’t told us about it.

But right now, he wasn’t threatening a human or attacking me or my family. I was a hunter, not a murderer. Fine line, but a line nonetheless.

I backed toward the door, unwilling to turn my back on him. He never took his eyes off of me, but he didn’t come closer.

Taryn unlocked the door and I came inside, leaning the sledgehammer against the wall. Concern lined her features, but she kept her voice even. Hopefully, the movie drowned out my one-sided conversation outside from Charlie’s heightened sense of hearing.

“Is everything okay?”

I nodded. “I think so, just wanted the sledgehammer from the garage just in case.” I kissed her cheek and tried to bury my unease. “What’d I miss?”

Charlie turned around on the couch. “If you’d come sit, I could explain it.”

Taryn’s lips curved into a nervous smile. “Are you up for a movie?”

I took her hand and walked her to the sofa. We sat beside Charlie while he rattled off who was who, but all my attention was focused on the back door.

M
y cell phone rang, jolting me up from the couch. Morning light filtered through the windows. We’d made it. I answered, while peering down the hall. Last night, I sent Taryn and Charlie to sleep in my room while I kept watch. For now they were still sleeping.

“Yeah?”

“It’s Aren. Yesterday I found something about the purchase of the house in Tahoe for Taryn, but with new moon, I didn’t get a chance to call.”

I was wide awake now. Since talking to my Dad about Malcolm, Aren had been scouring his father’s old records for any kind of transaction that might lead us to the reason he kept Taryn a secret from his Pack.

“So what did you find?”

“A lock box key and a bill of sale and title to her house in Tahoe.” A drawer closed in the background. “You can come with me to the bank and open the box.”

“I can’t leave them unprotected with Damian still out there.”

“Sasha’s off-duty today. I can ask her to do surveillance until you get back.”

Aren’s mate, Sasha, had deadly aim with a handgun. Of our entire Pack, she was the most lethal from a distance. “That’d be great. How soon can she get here?”

“Within the hour.”

“Have her text me when she’s in place. I’ll be there.”

I put my cell in my pocket and took Tank outside. I wandered out to the tree line. Sebastian’s prints were still in the snow. He’d been here. But why?

The phone dinged. I pulled it out and found a text from…speak of the devil.

My brother does not know that I am aware of his stay in Tahoe. If he caught my scent, he would turn back rather than expose himself to me. I don’t give a damn about your safety, but I do need information about why your Alpha owed my mother a favor.

I chuckled. “You weasel.”

I quickly typed out a reply.

Next time, warning me of your intentions could save your life. We might have found something more. You keep us informed about Damian’s whereabouts, and I’ll do the same for you.

Tank and I went back inside. Taryn stood bleary-eyed in the kitchen. “Want some breakfast?”

“I’ve got to grab a shower and run to the bank, but I should be home in time for lunch.”

She glanced down the hall. “What if we hear from Damian?”

“I have a friend who’s a detective. She’s going to be keeping an eye on the place without drawing any attention until I get back.” I kissed her hair. “I won’t be gone long.”

She smiled. “Don’t forget, Charlie’s last soccer game is this afternoon.”

“I know, I’ll be back and we can all ride together.”