Moon's Law (New Moon Wolves 2 ~ Bite of the Moon ~ BBW Romance) (15 page)

"But you already said you’re not going to kill him," she said, confused.

"True." Tao piled three slices of pizza on his plate and she noted it appeared to be a veggie pizza, which made her feel bad about her earlier ribbing. It also made her wonder, for a fleeting second, what it would be like to love someone so much you would change that much for them.

Tao shrugged. "You guys are such new wolves, I don’t want to get bogged down in a lot of debate. We need to act quickly and decisively here." He settled into a chair and began shoveling pizza in his mouth. Closing his eyes, he made a humming sound deep in his chest.

Charlotte and Kane followed suit, eating in relative silence until Kai and Leo's arrival interrupted them.

Zeroing in on the pizza, Leo said, "You think of everything, brother." He snagged two pieces of each kind, his golden eyes shining with happy anticipation.

Kai hung back, more reserved, his expression closed. Looking to Kane and then Charlotte, he said, "So the hunter becomes the prey."

Kane nodded. "Yes."

"He’s still alive?" Kai looked thoughtful.

"Yep," Charlotte said, taking the initiative to consolidate what was left of the pizzas into one box. She stacked the empty boxes and set them on the kitchen counter, clearing the center of the dining room table. Kai seemed to approve, because only then did he take a seat.

"What are we going to do with him?" Leo asked before stuffing an entire slice into his mouth.

"That’s the big mystery," Tao said. "We’re not going to kill him. Not after everything we’ve been through."

"I still don't understand why your old pack's alpha wanted to kill all of us," Charlotte said. The idea of other werewolves wanting to kill them just because they'd been bitten was sick. Is that what being a werewolf did to people? Made them quick to kill and without remorse? Was
she
going to end up like that?

"He thought it would protect the pack. You have to remember, Nick’s bite didn’t just turn you, it made you his slave. He could tell you to do anything and you would have no choice." Tao’s hands folded into fists. "He forced Audrey to…do things."

"Oh wow," Charlotte said. She hadn’t realized Nick had done more than bite Audrey. Her heart went out to her friend who had been through so much. They all had. She got up and went to the fridge looking for something bubbly to settle her now churning stomach. Talking about Nick always got to her. Finding a soda, she returned to her seat and popped the tab on the can.

Tao looked to Kai. "Are you ready to rearrange this hunter's brain?"

Kai shifted in his seat, his expression grim. "I don't think I can fix this hunter like that."

Tao's eyes widened with surprised. "But earlier, we discussed—"

Kai cut him off. "I was wrong when I said I could do this for the hunter. I have come to know that he was born this way. It’s who he is and I can’t change that. Just like Nick."

"How did you find out?" Charlotte asked.

Kai tapped his ear with a finger. "I listen to things that do not speak, but they still say many things."

There was a moment of silence where everyone absorbed that. Charlotte wondered what it was to be Kai, to have such power. Being a werewolf, she felt she had some experience with magic, but then Kai said things that revealed there was so much more, and it ran deeper and darker than any of them realized. If he didn't always talk in sideways riddles, she would ask him about it. As it was, she didn't have the patience to try and decipher his true meaning. At least his brothers seemed to understand him and could be relied upon to translate.

Tao rubbed his forehead. "Well, there goes my plan. Now what?"

"We can’t set him loose then," Kane said with a frown. "He would just keep coming after us."

"Right," Tao said with a nod.

"And we’re not killing him, and Kai can’t do his mojo thing to him, so…" Charlotte trailed off, looking at the brothers in turn, hoping they would have a solution. She’d come to depend on them since she’d been bitten. They all had leaned on the strength and knowledge of the three werewolf brothers. The idea they may not know what to do made her anxious.

"We could put him on a plane to Africa or something," Leo offered.

"He would just come back," Kai said. "His spirit compels him to kill us, and he won’t leave us alive if he can help it."

"Too bad we can’t just lock him up," Charlotte said.

"Wait a minute," Kane said, straightening in his chair. "I think we
can
lock him up."

Everyone looked at him.

"All we have to do is make sure those murders stick, and he’ll be going away for a long time," Kane said.

Tao drummed his fingers on the table, his expression thoughtful. After a moment, he said, "That could work, but," he held up one finger, "we don’t want to do this here. We’ve got to get him out of Glen Vine."

"Yeah. I hate to think of him getting out on bail," Charlotte said.

"That and we need to keep this out of the papers," Kai added. "Other hunters might read about the silver bullets, which is basically a ‘Werewolves Here’ signal among their kind."

"There are states that have high bail amounts for murder," Kane said. "High enough this guy likely won’t be able to get out. The only thing is, we’d have to move the bodies, too and stage some kind of crime scene."

"We can manage it. We’ll use the truck from the two men the hunter shot. You game for a field trip, brother?" Tao looked at Leo, who gave a small nod.

"So, the story would be, he came around here shooting at us," Kane pointed to himself and then Charlotte. "Then he took off with the truck and two hostages, crossed state lines and killed them both. That should get him out of our jurisdiction and put the story in another town."

Charlotte shook her head, knowing it wouldn't be that simple. "But how do we keep him from coming back? Kai said this is what he does, and it’s not like he’s going to forget us."

Kai held up a finger and everyone fell silent, waiting for him to talk. Instead, he closed his eyes and breathed in and out.

"What—" started Charlotte, but he opened his eyes to glare at her.

Putting his finger to his lips, he shushed her. "I’m listening."

She mimed zipping her lips and gestured for him to continue. He closed his eyes again and breathed some more, sounding more like he was running a marathon than meditating. His breaths were ragged and strained. It reminded Charlotte of an asthma attack her friend had at a sleepover years ago. Glancing at Tao, she raised her eyebrows, but he shook his head and made a sharp motion with his hand, indicating she should do nothing.

After several long minutes, Kai opened his eyes, which were now red and bleary with fatigue. In a hoarse voice, he said, "I can’t change him, but I can hide us from his memory, put another place in his mind."

"Make it somewhere far away," Leo said.

"Are you okay?" Charlotte asked, alarmed at Kai’s appearance. She and Kane exchanged glances, and the sheriff looked just as concerned as she was.

"I’m fine," Kai wheezed.

"What happened?" Kane asked. "You were fine, but now you look and sound like hell."

Kai shrugged. "Magic isn’t easy. I have paid a precious price to buy our safety." He pushed his chair back and used his hands on the table to push himself to his feet. "Show me this hunter and I will remove the threat to our pack. We have to be fast or else we'll all be in danger."

Chapter Nineteen

They all trailed after Kai into the garage, which smelled faintly of oil and gas. The cages Audrey housed her rescues in were stacked against one wall, all empty, which Charlotte knew was a good sign. It meant all the injured animals had healed and been returned to the wild. A new wave of critters wouldn’t come in until spring when, Audrey had told her, lots of animals found trouble, more so than at other times of the year.

"In the winter, animals hunker down and hibernate," she’d said as Charlotte helped her clean the pans at the bottom of each cage. "They aren’t as active, so they don’t get hurt as much."

Charlotte hoped that was true for werewolves as well. She could use a little hibernation, some kind of break from the werewolf weirdness that had taken over her life.

Aside from the cages, there was a long tool bench, which she knew was Tao’s domain. And in the middle of the floor, on top of an oil stain that spread out like old blood, laid the hunter. He was still unconscious, his stomach moving up and down as he breathed.

"You’re sure he won’t come back for us?" Charlotte asked. A chill went up her spine as she looked at the unconscious hunter, fully realizing how tall and wide he was for the first time. He gave Tao a run for his money, and Tao was a giant.

Kane moved next to her and put an arm around her, pulling her close. "It’ll be okay," he said. "Between Kai and our legal system, he’ll be lucky if he ever sees a McDonald’s again, let alone the werewolves of Glen Vine."

"I hope you’re right," she murmured.

"Silence," Kai said, his voice sharp despite the hoarseness that still plagued him. He kneeled at the hunter’s side and lightly slapped the man’s cheek. The hunter moaned and his eyes fluttered open and then shut again. Kai put more force into the slap as evidenced by the increase in sound when his hand connected with the hunter’s flesh.

Now the hunter’s eyes stayed open, and he looked at all of them in turn, a bitter hatred burning in his eyes. Behind his duct tape gag, he mumbled something at them.

Hating herself for doing it, Charlotte edged behind Kane. She didn’t want to feel the man’s gaze. Dodging the bullets had been bad enough. Kane reached back and cupped her body with his arm and hand, pulling her up against him.

"I’ve got you," he whispered as he looked over his shoulder at her.

She leaned into him, peeking around his broad physique as Kai did whatever it was he did in these situations. It involved more heavy breathing, closed eyes, and, this time, a monotone hum.

Something rushed over her skin. Usually it was her wolf, but this didn’t feel all that hairy. It was…power, she realized. Lots of power. Enough to make it seem like there was no oxygen in the air. When she did breathe, it flooded her system with the energy charging the garage. Her head began to swim, and even Kane had to take a step to keep himself from falling. The hunter screamed, his body bowing up off the floor, eyes rolling back in his head, but Kai didn’t stop. If anything, his humming grew louder until it stung the air like a hive of buzzing bees.

Charlotte and Kane dropped to their knees in unison, unable to stand against the power pressing down on them. She clutched his shoulders and he laid one hand over hers. Only Tao and Leo remained standing, somehow strong enough to keep their feet under them. Charlotte wasn’t surprised by that, though. She’d heard Tao say he could lift a truck and Leo was no slouch in the brute strength department. After a pack run, she’d seen him pick up a tree that had fallen across his path and hurl it back into the woods like a toothpick.

After several minutes, the weight of power in the air lightened and Kai stopped humming. Charlotte took a deep breath, relieved to be able to breathe just regular air.

"That was crazy," she said to Kane, her voice hushed.

He nodded, but didn’t speak, his attention focused on the hunter. Kai was trying to stand up, but kept falling down to one knee. Leo stepped forward and helped him up.

"Is it done?" Tao asked.

Kai nodded. "It is. A greater magic I have never worked, but he will not know where we are. This place will be lost to him, and he will not find it no matter how hard he looks."

"How?" Charlotte asked. "How do you know this? How do you do this?"

Kai gave her a tired look. "I know because of what I am. I do this because I was born for this work." Looking to Leo, he said, "The hunter will sleep until you wake him." He pulled a feather out of  his hair. "Put this under his nose when you’re ready for him to wake."

Leo stepped forward to take the feather. Tucking it into the back pocket of his jeans, he said, "Got it. Thanks."

Kai kept his hand up, now reaching for Leo. "I need to rest, brother. Please take me inside."

Leo slung Kai’s arm over his shoulders and started walking with his brother to the door leading back into the house, but both stopped short when the hunter on the floor groaned, the sound harsh and full of agony. Everyone looked at him and then took a step back.

"What the Hell?" Charlotte whispered to herself. The hunter’s back arched off the floor again and then slammed down, the skin making an audible slapping sound on the concrete.

He writhed and rocked, eventually rolling onto his stomach and then back onto his back. When she saw the duct tape binding his hands rip apart, she pointed at him and yelled, "He’s breaking free!"

Leo left Kai and ran to the hunter, Tao moving in tandem with him, but it was too late. The duct tape snapped in a succession of staccato beats and the hunter was free. With the strength of a gymnast, he jumped to his feet, his fists swinging before he was even upright.

It was going to be the first time they’d met all over again.

"How is he so strong?" Charlotte asked, watching as the hunter landed solid punches to Leo and Tao’s faces. The force of the hits caused both men to stagger back.