Moon Dance (8 page)

Piper looked up.
“Huh?”

“
I’m not lazy.”

Piper looked confused. “Yes,
you are. Daddy say it all the time.”

“
Yeah?” said Dana. “Well,
Daddy’s going to stop saying it.”

Avery stood up. “Dana,
listen—”

“
No,” she said. “You listen.
I don’t know what’s happened to you, Avery Brooks, but you’re not
the same man I fell in love with. You know, even if this house does
get messy sometimes, it’s not that big of a deal. You’re going to
find some way to let that go. You’re going to find a way to go out
running with me, and you’re going to let me help you with this wolf
stuff.”

“
What are you—”

“
Because even King has
noticed that you’re self-imploding. Plus, you’re keeping things
from me, and you’re controlling me, and it’s not cool.”

He took a deep breath.
“Maybe we could talk about this later. Not in front of our
daughter.”

“
We’re going to talk about
it now,” she said. “Because you insult me in front of her all the
time.”

“
Dana—”

“
You’re going to agree to
this, Avery, and we’re going to fix things between us. You’re going
to agree to it now. Because I love you, and I don’t want to hurt
you, but we’re unbalanced right now. I spend all my time trying to
please you, and it’s never enough.”

“
That is
not
true.” His nostrils
flared. “I spend all
my
time trying to please
you
, and you’re never
satisfied.”

“
Agree to it,
Avery.”

“
Agree to shifting into a
wolf and running through the woods with you? No, I’m going to. I’m
not a wolf. I’m a human being. I don’t need—”

“
You’re an alpha wolf,
and it’s eating you alive, begging to be let out. If you don’t give
into it a little bit, you’re going to eat
me
alive.”

“
Bullshit, Dana. I don’t
know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“
Avery, no swear words in
front of the baby!”

“
You wanted to have this
conversation in front of her. I think you asked for it.”

Dana dragged her hands over
her face. “You know what? Forget it. I can’t be here right now.”
She stalked over to the door.

“
You’re just leaving? You
can’t leave.”

“
Watch me.” She flung the
door open and hurled herself out into the hallway.

* * *

Dana was going to do it. She
was going to see Cole. She wasn
’t sure when
she’d decided it. Maybe when she was walking out of the door to her
apartment. Maybe when she was running up the hallway.

She’d thought she’d go into
the woods and run—just run it all away, let the sweet peace of the
wolf take over her body and fix everything.

But then she knew she wasn’t
going to do that.

She was going to see Cole.

That was what she wanted. That was what
every fiber of her being was screaming for her to do.

And when she decided it, she
got scared. But then she got excited, and the two emotions began a
complicated dance inside her torso.

I’ll just talk to
him
, she thought.
I won’t touch him. I won’t lead him on. I’ll be very
professional. But I have to see him.

She almost headed down to
the bottom level of headquarters right away. She didn’t know if her
access badge still worked, but she nearly threw herself into the
elevator and shot herself right down to him.

She imagined all the times
before. Times in the middle of the night, easing into his darkened
cell. His voice would wash over her like melted chocolate and his
hands—oh, his hands. She remembered his hands on her skin, the way
he seemed to force her body to respond in ways she hadn’t even
known were possible.

But she stopped herself.

I better not go see him
alone. I can’t trust myself with him alone. I know that. Every time
we’ve ever been alone together, I’ve let him touch me, and I can’t
do that.

No, someone else had to be there with
her.

She might be angry at Avery,
but he was her husband, and she wasn’t going to allow herself to be
unfaithful to him. And when it came to Cole, well, she was never in
control of herself. Cole could convince her to do anything on
earth—even kill for him. He’d done it before. He’d set it up so
that she’d have to kill another wolf, and…

And it had been glorious.
Like the way it felt to take the rabbits in the woods. She
remembered the smell of the blood, the tremor of a pulse beneath
the skin. Ripping and tearing her jaws—

Better not to think about
that. Better not to think about it at all.

No, she was only going to
see Cole to help the SF. It had nothing to do with the fact that
she hated her life, that she spent all day wondering why she
mattered,
if
she
mattered, and how she was going to keep going. Nothing to do with
the fact that Cole had always made her feel so god damned
important.

She went to Ursula’s
apartment and banged on the door.

No one answered.

Ursula must still be in the office.
Sometimes, she worked late, after all.

Dana went upstairs. As she
stepped into the tracker’s office, she felt like she’d traveled
back in time. She used to work here. She used to mean something to
the people around her. She used to have a job that she was actually
good at.

She was a much better tracker than
mother, and Dana knew that in her bones as she stepped into the
office. She wished there was some way she could come back to work
here.

Maybe…

Maybe, since she’d stood up
to Avery, it was time to try working again. She could suggest
getting a babysitter for Piper, maybe even hiring someone to come
in and do a little cleaning. With both their salaries, they could
maybe afford…

“
Gray?” Ursula was standing
in the doorway to her office. “What are you doing here?”

Dana took a shaking breath.
“I want to help. I’ll talk to Cole.”

* * *

King called downstairs and asked if the
workers could move Cole into an interrogation room.

Dana watched, shifting
nervously from one foot to the other. She felt antsy. The fear and
excitement were making her insides feel like jello. She couldn’t
stand still.

Is this a good idea?
she asked herself.

No
,
she responded.
But we’re doing it
anyway.

We? Was it a bad sign that
she was talking to herself and referring to herself in the plural
sense?

She made fists and dug her fingernails
into her palms.

“
It might take them a few
minutes to get him moved,” said Ursula, “but we can start heading
down if you want.”

“
O-okay.” Dana nodded. And
then she just kept nodding, like she couldn’t stop moving her
head.

Ursula took her by the arm.
“If you’re really not good with this, we don’t have to go through
with it. You seem—”

“
Fine.” Dana tried to smile.
“I’m fine. I-I want to do this.”

“
Okay,” said
Ursula.

Together, they left the tracker office,
went to the elevator, and got inside. Ursula hit the button for the
bottom floor and inserted her access card when prompted.

The elevator lurched to
life.

It made Dana’s stomach knot
up.

She hadn’t seen Cole in two
years. And he hadn’t seen her. The last time she’d spoken to him,
he’d been bitter and accusatory. He thought that she’d conspired to
have him killed. She’d tried to explain that she hadn’t known about
Earl Lowell’s plans. In fact, no one had. Earl had been operating
on his own, without the consent of the SF board. But she wasn’t
sure that Cole believed her. What if he was still angry? What if he
wanted to meet her only to punish her in some way?

No, that didn’t seem right.
He’d put himself in danger to contact her, after all. And now he
was begging to see her. That was the one thing that he wanted most
of all.

She thought of his voice on the phone
just a few days ago.

God, she wanted to see him
so bad. As the elevator descended, Dana felt it thrumming through
her limbs, the desire for him.

Oh, no
, she thought.
We’re in trouble,
aren’t we?

The elevator doors opened,
and she and Ursula got out. Ursula spoke to the woman manning the
desk, who said that they’d just gotten Cole secured in one of the
interrogation rooms, and that the two of them should go ahead
in.

Ursula headed down the hallway, and
Dana followed.

Just outside the door, Dana
closed her eyes. She could
smell
him.

Damn it, she’d forgotten
that smell. He smelled like the forest. He smelled like the small
prey that cavorted under the leaves. Smelled like the blood that
gushed out of them when she tore and ripped and—

“
You okay?” said
Ursula.

Dana gulped.
“Yeah.”

“
Listen, if you want to back
out—”

“
No.” No, dear God,
she
needed
to be
close to him now. She could smell him. She wanted to see him. She
was dying for it.

“
Well, if you change your
mind at any point, you say the word, and it’s all over. Got
it?”

Dana nodded. But she was
afraid that she was going to throw herself on him, and that they’d
have to pull her off his body.

Ursula opened the door.

And Dana saw Cole.

He looked… different. All
that hair. That beard. He was… She took slow steps into the
room.

Cole stood up. His chains rattled. He
was shaking.

She stared into his eyes,
and he stared right back. She imagined she could see things in
those depths—pain and fear and running and hiding and… wildness. He
was so, so wild now.

She liked it. It called out
to something wild inside her, the wolf that she let out to run in
the woods.

She stopped at the edge of
the table, and the two of them simply stood there, staring at each
other. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but something held
her back. She saw Cole’s hands twitch, as if he wanted to reach for
her too. But instead he interlaced his fingers, as if forcing
himself to keep his hands to himself.

Cole’s gaze swept her.
Slowly. Greedily. He started at the tip of her head and then went
down her body. Then he went back up. Then back down. Finally, he
settled on looking into her eyes again. “I don’t like what he’s
done to you.”

It wasn’t quite the reaction
she’d been expecting. She looked away, fingering the edge of her
stained shirt. She looked the same way she’d looked when Ursula had
come to see her earlier—unwashed and ugly. A frumpy mommy. There
was nothing sexy about her anymore. She wasn’t the Dana Gray that
Cole had seduced all those years ago.

“
I didn’t mean—” He moved
his hands, and his chains clinked again.

She looked back up at him.

He gestured at himself.
“Obviously, the way I look—”

“
Mr. Randall, if you could
sit down, please.” Ursula was all professional courtesy.

Cole was grim. “It’s in your
eyes. He’s breaking you, Dana.”

She flinched.

“
Please,” said Ursula. “Have
a seat. We’re here to talk about—”

“
You’re not meant for this,”
Cole whispered. “You need—”

“
Mr.
Randall
.”

Cole sucked in a breath.

Dana sank down into her
chair.

Cole glanced around the
room, his movements quick, like an untamed beast. Then… he sat
too.

It was quiet.

Ursula took her seat and
cleared her throat. “You’d indicated to us that you wanted to speak
with Dana Gray. She’s agreed to speak to you. But I must remind you
that she is here only at my pleasure, and if I feel that you’re not
cooperating—”

“
I still want the pardon,”
Cole said.

Ursula sighed heavily. “When
you first arrived here, you were only demanding Gray’s
presence—”

“
I won’t let you keep
me locked up in here.” Cole leaned forward. “I can’t
be
in here, do you
understand that?”

Ursula pressed her lips together. She
shot Dana a look.

But Dana didn’t know what
Ursula wanted her to do. Was she supposed to try to convince Cole
to stay locked up? She didn’t think she could do that.

Ursula took a deep breath.
“I suppose nothing’s going to change your mind, Mr.
Randall?”