Riley's Redemption (A Moon's Glow Novel) (29 page)

She shrugged. “I don’t
know. He’s angry, but if he’s the same man I met fifty years ago, he will
eventually.” She tapped the face of her phone, turning off the song that we
could still hear from the ear buds. “I understand why Joe did it though.”

Anger for Joe, Sadie
agreeing with him, and basically the whole situation spurred through my veins.
“He lied to Nate for years over
you
, the cure and he tried to kill
Isaiah. How could you say that?”

“I don’t agree with
what
he did, just the reason behind it.” She paused, flinging the braid off of her
shoulder. “He did it to keep his family whole. The only family he knows. As an
older werewolf, who has been alone for fifty years, I understand that when you
find people you consider family, you hold on to them. We are meant to be with a
pack, we were not supposed to be alone.”

I considered her words
and thought about how Joe had been on his own for a lot of years after he left
Charlotte. I could understand why he did it, but since I was laying here
healing from a silver bullet in my shoulder, I wasn’t ready to forgive.

I could hear Nate and
smelled his scent before he stepped around the privacy screen. “Hey, how are
you feeling?”

I smiled, wider than I
did with Sadie. Just the sight of him was the only medicine I needed. “Better.
The burning is gone. I’m just sore now.”

Sadie glanced between
us and stood up. “I’ll go see what Adrian is up to.” She leaned down, kissed my
forehead and then she was gone.

Nate took the chair she
vacated, reaching his hand out to take mine, his warmth spread into my hand and
up my arm. “What were you thinking, jumping in front of a bullet?”

“I was thinking that
Joe was going to kill an innocent man and I had to save him.”

His expression was
stern for a long moment and then his lips turned up at the edges. His eyes were
shining with love. “I’m proud of you. You saved his life.”

I shrugged and then
winced when a sharp pain shot through my shoulder. “
Ow
.”

Nate frowned, his eyes
sympathetic. He leaned forward and kissed my bare shoulder softly, his lips
lingering over my heated, tender skin. When he pulled away, he eyed me
intensely. “Better?”

I nodded, his deep
stare giving me tingles.

When he sat back down,
his face turned serious. “I’m not sure I want to take the cure anymore.”

I sat up and winced
again as the pain throbbed through my arm. “What? Why?”

“If you were human, you
wouldn’t be sitting here. You’d be in a hospital after a surgery with a long
road of recovery ahead of you.”

“
So
! That’s the
way it’s supposed to be. Being human will finally make you truly happy. I know
you say you are, but as long as you’re a werewolf you will always regret your
past and hate who you are.”

“And you want this?” he
asked quietly.

I didn’t have to
contemplate my answer. I had never wanted anything more, well besides Nate.
“Yes, I do. You know I’ve never really accepted being this way. If I did, I
would hunt animals.”

He nodded his head in
agreement. “Okay, we’ll do it, as soon as you’re better.”

A grin spread over my
lips as a thought sprang to my mind. “No. I want to do it next week. Do you
think Isaiah will let us stay?”

“After you saved his
life, I think he’d do anything you wanted.” He smirked. “But why?”

“I want to go for one
more run.”

A smile crossed his
face as he realized what I meant. The full moon was next week and what a way to
end our werewolf life, on the beautiful, scenic, Appalachian Mountains.

A New Beginning

I stood up on a moss
covered mountain peak with my bare arms stretched out and my face tipped up
toward the sky. The moon shone brightly above me, its glow lightly caressing my
exposed skin, creating a tingling sensation all over my body. It was the last
time the moon would call to the animal inside of me and my wolf was itching to
come out. “Are you ready?”  Nate’s deep voice called softly from behind me.

I turned to face the
man I loved, the man that I had been through so much with. His light blond hair
gleamed white under the moonlight. His face was shining with the excitement
that bubbled inside me. We were about to take our last run as werewolves and if
the cure worked, tomorrow we would be human again. The air between us sizzled
with anticipation. I couldn’t stop the wide grin that spread across my face as
I nodded. He held out a hand to me and I placed mine into it. Tingles sparked
into my palms, spreading to my fingers.

We were all out for our
last run; even Isaiah was here. Like he said, he still felt the call of the
moon and he craved the forest at night, the sounds of the animals roaming
through the trees. This was the first time he’d spend the full moon with actual
werewolves though. He had his ATV with him and had challenged us to a race.

Nate pulled me to a
grouping of evergreen trees. Their minty smell permeated everything around us.
The rest of our group were waiting. Adrian and Sadie were already in their wolf
forms and I could hear Isaiah revving his machine, waiting impatiently for the
rest of the pack. Our last run would be bittersweet without Lauren and Joe. I
felt a little lost without them. They had been part of our lives for the last
year. What would I do without them; without Lauren? I still hadn’t heard from
her, but hopefully it was because I didn’t have cell range. When we returned to
civilization I would make sure to contact her. I needed to know that she was
okay, and to know where they were headed. I understood that she needed to be
with Joe right now, but that didn’t ease any of the worry and sadness that
festered when I thought of her.

I felt Nate brush my
cheek lightly with a finger and then move to my chin as he lifted my head up to
look me in the eyes. “Are you thinking about Lauren?” We had spoken very little
about our absent friends since Joe’s betrayal and their sudden departure. It
had taken me a few days to recover from the silver and then we made plans for
taking the cure. We had even ventured out, exploring the mountain in our human
and wolf forms. It was beautiful and I would miss it when we finally went home.

“Yes,” I answered
softly, my voice barely audible.

“I miss them too.”

My eyes stung with
unshed tears. Their absence created an ache I felt more now as I was about to
become a wolf for the last time. We would never run as a full pack again, this
night of farewell just wasn`t the same without them. “Will you ever forgive
him?”

Nate took in a deep
breath and pursed his lips as he thought over my question. “I hope so. He
wasn’t the only one who considered us a family. He was the main constant in my
life for the last fifty years. Family members came and went, dying of old age
and he was always there. But, it’s hard to understand how he could keep such
huge secrets from me. He knows how much I missed my humanity.”

I leaned my forehead
against his bare chest. I could hear the strong beat of his heart. He must have
already started to undress when he saw me hesitate. I knew what he said was
true and it must be hard to realize someone you trusted so deeply had lied to
you. But if he had known of the cure ten years ago, we wouldn’t be here about
to begin a new life together. “I can’t be angry with him,” I murmured, looking
up into his intense blue eyes that were almost black in the darkness. “I know
he hurt you, and what he tried to do to Isaiah was horrible. But if you knew of
the cure back then, we would never have met and I would be trapped in a life I
hated.” Just the thought of never knowing him made my eyes water, a single tear
escaped and slid down my cheek.

Nate brushed it with
his thumb and kissed my forehead gently. “Then I can’t be angry at him either.
I should be thanking him.”

I gazed into his eyes
and grinned, feeling so much love for him, my heart swelled with it.

“Let’s do this,” I
said, pulling away from him and yanking the tank top from my body.

He followed suit and
then we began our transformation. I didn’t hide this time. It was the last
change and I felt so close to him, I didn’t want any secrets between us.

When we were fully in
our wolf forms, we emerged from the trees and began our final run with our
friends.

Our limbs thundered
over the terrain, as we ran through the trails. We were following the ATV; the
roaring motor was a driving pulse pulling us towards it. Since Isaiah was more
familiar with the area, he was leading us up the trail rising higher and
higher. I was behind the rest of our group, enjoying the journey, concentrating
on the power in my legs as we ascended the mountain. The brisk wind whipped
through my fur as I jumped over a fallen tree branch and veered around a big
white oak stump. A few miles into our trek we finally stopped.

Isaiah turned off his
machine and stood on the edge of a cliff. We moved toward him, all of us taking
positions on either side as we looked down. He had led us to one of the highest
peaks of the mountain and the view was awesome. My breath caught in my throat
from the sheer beauty of it. We had seen it during the day and the brightness
the sun created over the vibrant colors was beautiful. But at night, the
darkness created mysterious shadows along the forest and the moon gleamed off the
rocks of the mountain, turning it almost glowing white. The bright stars
shimmered in the contrasting dark endless sky. Since we were so high up, I felt
like I could reach a forepaw up and touch one.

“What do you think?”
Isaiah asked us, interrupting my thoughts. He was dressed in a plain black
t-shirt and faded jeans. His hair blew in the wind and the leathery skin on his
face appeared almost smooth in the lowlight. “Should we howl from the
mountaintop? It is Megan and Nate’s last full moon.”

I felt my lips turn up
into a wolfy smile. It was a fantastic idea. When would we ever be this high up
again and never would the two of us be wolves again. Before I could glance at
my friends to see their reaction to the suggestion, Nate tipped his head up and
let out a chilling howl. I did the same, a chorus of wailing erupted into the
infinite night sky. Sadie and Adrian joined in on the song. I could hear
animals in the bushes nearby scurry away, frightened by our cries. We must have
looked a little odd, four wolves and an old man standing on top of a cliff,
howling at the moon. It was the perfect way to end our time as werewolves.

“Do you have any
two’s?” I asked Sadie. We were playing cards the next day. It was my idea. I
had been jittery and anxious, pacing back and forth so much I was wearing out a
path in Isaiah’s rug. I needed a distraction and all I could think to take my
mind off the upcoming event was playing cards, and Go Fish was all Sadie knew
how to play. Marisa had taught her years ago and for some reason, that was what
they still played. Nate and Adrian were outside talking to Isaiah and had
obviously wanted privacy from our heightened hearing. I knew I should be
wondering what they were discussing, but I was too nervous to care. If the cure
worked, I was about to be human. Would I feel the same toward my husband or
would the mate bond disappear with the werewolf gene. Just the thought created
mutant butterflies doing the mambo in my stomach.

As Sadie plopped the
last of her cards onto the table’s surface, the front door opened. The three
men wandered up to the kitchen where we were playing and gazed at me
expectantly. “Is it time?” I asked, swallowing a lump the size of Mount Everest
that had been building in my throat since I woke up that morning.

Nate nodded. “Do you
still want to?” he asked me hesitantly.

I nodded; happy that he
couldn’t see my hands shake; they were in my lap, under the table. “Yes.” My
voice was thankfully much stronger than I felt.

He smiled and held out
his hand, leading me back to the bedroom I had woken up in a week ago. There
were now two single beds in it, lying parallel to each other, a small table and
lamp sat between them.

“Lay down please,”
Isaiah instructed us.

We did as we were told
and I stared up at the ceiling. It was lined with pipes, cables and vents.
Isaiah stood next to Nate, at his insistence. He wanted to be the first to take
the cure, making sure it was safe. My heart ached at the thought. He loved me
so much he would risk his own life to save mine. I held my breath as Isaiah
pushed the needle into Nate`s upper arm. When he finished, he stepped back,
assessing Nate’s reaction. “How does it feel?” he asked.

“Fine. I don’t feel any
different.”

“It should take an hour
or two to spread through your body. And when it does, you should start to feel
hot and feverish. I’d like you to stay in bed though just in case it`s
different for you and it starts sooner.” When Nate nodded, Isaiah looked over
at me.

“Maybe she should wait
for me to finish the process before we give her the dose,” Nate suggested, a
worry line forming between his eyes.

“No,” I said
forcefully. I was not going to wait. I wanted to turn human at the same time as
him. We were in this together, whether he liked it or not.

Nate stared at me, as
if he was thinking about arguing. I narrowed my eyes at him, hoping he could
see how serious I was. This was not the time to make decisions for me and I
would not stand for it.

Finally his face
softened. “Fine. You’re right; we are in this together.”

I reached my hand
across the empty space between our beds. “You’re damn right we are.”

When he smiled at me,
sliding his hand around mine, Isaiah moved toward me, the second needle in his
hand.

“You ready?” Isaiah
asked. When I nodded, he held up the needle.

“Wait!” Sadie called
out, freezing Isaiah in place. She rushed forward from her spot in the corner
next to Adrian and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “Good luck. Thank you
for making me your friend and for being the best mate Nate could have asked
for.”

“Sadie, she’s not
dying,” Adrian chastised. “
Is she
?” he asked Isaiah nervously. Adrian
had come to be one of my best friends and it was comforting to see that he felt
the same way.

Isaiah grinned. “No,
she’ll be fine. There is nothing harmful in the mix.”

Ignoring Adrian’s
words, Sadie hugged me again, her dark strands falling into my face. Her hair
smelled of ginger. I returned the hug, feeling warm and tingly for my new
friend. I was so glad we had found her. I was thankful she and Adrian we here
to experience this with us. A pang of sadness pierced through my heart when I
thought of Lauren. She had been the one with us through everything. She was the
one who encouraged Nate to approach me, and she had told me to be patient with
him when he kept pushing me away at the beginning. She was there for the good,
the bad and everything in between. She should have been with us on the day we
returned human. But I knew I couldn’t focus on that. I would see her again, and
there would be other important experiences we could share with her. This was
not the end of our friendship; I had to keep reminding myself of that.

Lost in my thoughts, I
was surprised when Sadie pulled away from me and moved to Nate to give him a
hug.

Adrian took her place
giving me a big bear hug. “Be safe,” he whispered in my ear. “I don’t want to
lose my best friend.”

I grinned up at him.
“Everything will be fine. Next full moon, you can take me for a ride.” I winked
at him. “I’ve never ridden on a wolf before. You can be like a pet.”

“Funny.” He smirked at
me and then smiled.

He shook Nate’s hand
and then he and his mate moved to the back of the room to watch, taking their
previous spot on two chairs.

This time Isaiah didn’t
ask if I was ready, he just pressed the plunger into my upper arm and waited
for the funky looking liquid to seep into my body.

When he finished, he
placed the empty needles on a tray and grinned. “You’re the first werewolves
I’ve cured. I’m excited to have others like me, between werewolf and human.”

My veins burned as the
liquid traveled down my arm, to my hands, spreading the opposite way, to my
shoulders and then to my other arm. The feeling wasn’t painful, just slightly
irritating. It was as if I could feel the cure slowly taking over my body. When
I glanced at Nate, his face was awash with agitation and I knew he was feeling
the same.

A few hours later my
body started to heat up. Soon after, my stomach started to churn and then came
the sweats. It wasn’t long after that, I passed out, the burning sensation
still overpowering everything else. The last words I heard was Nate’s soft, “I
love you.”

My body ached in places
I didn’t know could feel pain. I was weak and thirsty as hell. It felt like fur
had grown on my tongue and since I had just taken an unknown drug, I hoped it
wasn`t literal and just meant that it was dry. When my eyelids fluttered open,
I turned my head. Nate was in the bed next to me, lying flat on his back, his
hair sticking up against the white pillow beneath him, his cheeks flushed. The
image reminded me of when I woke a month and a half earlier, legally tied to
him as his wife. Just like that moment, this one held so much meaning for us.
We were together, as we always would be.

He turned his head and
gazed at me expectantly, reaching out to hold my hand again. “How do you feel?”
he asked, his voice edged with concern.