Riley's Redemption (A Moon's Glow Novel) (8 page)

A Surprising Turn of Events

When we finally arrived in Portland there seemed
to be a nervous energy pulsing in the car. “Are you alright?” I asked. Adrian
had been silent for the last hour and his only responses to my attempts at
conversation were grunts and nods.

“Where do you think the
high school is?” he asked, ignoring my question.

“I’m not sure, but I
can pull up a map of the city.”

He pulled over to the
side of the road while I took out my phone and found the map. “These are all
the high schools.” I explained pointing at my phone. “Three are in this area
and one is closest to a lake.”

He was quiet as he
thought this through. “They could be near any one of them. It’s easier to hide
in the busy district, but the water from the lake would help to wash the scent
away.”

“I don’t know the kind
of person this werewolf is.” I turned my head at the sound of a growl coming
out of Adrian. “I know she has your sister, but Marisa says she loves her so
she can’t be as bad as Charlotte.” When he only stared at me, his eyes washed
with a mix of anger and confusion, I went on. “When Charlotte kidnapped us she
hid us on an island so she could hide our scents. Just like you guys did with your
hideout. You stayed near water. So I think we should check the surrounding area
of the school by the lake.”

He nodded his head and
turned on the ignition. The car purred to life before he merged with the rest
of the traffic.

A few minutes later my
phone beeped. It was a text from Nate, saying he was at the airport waiting for
his plane.

“Nate’s at the airport.
He’ll text me when he lands.”

Adrian only nodded,
focussed on the road ahead.

Since he refused to
speak, or look at me, I took the time to study him. His facial features were
hard and there were lines around his eyes that weren’t there the last time I
saw him. He had aged in the six months he’d been searching. He lived with the
evil Charlotte and her minions for ten years, but when I met him, he was
cheerful and kind. I rarely saw him frown. What had happened to make him this
grumpy, focussed man next to me? When he was living with Charlotte he escaped
by working out every day. Was that the reason he had retreated to this dark
mood, where he hardly smiled? Or was it the fact that his sister had been so
close to him for months, but still out of reach. Would he go back to his old
self when we found her? I really hope so. I missed the friend I had met six
months ago and although I had seen glimpses of him over the last few days, it
wasn’t the same. He was still a brooding, grumpy guy who hardly spoke.

I couldn’t look at his
sullen face any longer, it was depressing. I turned away and watched the
scenery pass by. Because of a rainstorm we had driven through earlier our
windows were closed. But the sun was out once again and as I leaned my head on
the glass I was vaguely aware of the pedestrians ambling around the residential
streets. My focus was ahead of us and from the corner of my eye I saw a long
brown braid. I sat up and turned my head. Adrian was going too fast so I had to
turn around, but I saw a girl walking towards a small apartment building with a
box in her hand. Her braid was loose and strands were falling over her eyes.
“That’s the werewolf,” I said quietly, hoping that she wouldn’t hear, although
we were now at the other end of the street.

Adrian spun to face me.
His eyes were wide and yellow. “What?”

I was looking ahead of
me not wanting to draw unwanted attention. “She’s behind us, at that building.”
I pointed over my shoulder. When he stepped on the brakes, I whispered harshly,
“Don’t slow down until we turn the corner. We don’t want to alert her.”

He did as I instructed,
but as soon as we were out of sight he parked on the side of the road and
jumped out. “You take the front and I‘ll go through the back. As soon as she
smells us she’s going to bolt. We have to cut her off.”

I nodded my head and
began to run. I had never ran so fast in my life, but I knew what he said was
true. Once she caught a whiff of us, she’d be gone. I hadn’t seen Marisa
around, so that meant either she was already at school, which I couldn’t
imagine since it looked like they had just arrived. Or she was inside the
apartment somewhere. I rounded the bend in record time, passed houses and a
little boy riding a big wheel. In seconds I was in front of the building. It
was a brown-brick, four-story with a row of cedar bushes along the front. I
didn’t see her when I first approached, but I heard the squeaking of a side
door. As I moved around the blue station wagon that was parked alongside the
buildings entrance, I spotted her. She was leaning against the open door,
balancing a box in her arms. Her head spun with my approach and she dropped the
box. It bounced on the cement walk and a cookbook fell out.

She narrowed her
chestnut colored eyes at me; they were intense and determined.

I stood in my stance
for kickboxing, prepared for anything.

Instead of attacking me
as I had anticipated, she spun around, her long skirt flailing out behind her.
She took off into the backyard, heading right for Adrian. I followed her, but
she must have caught his scent, because she shifted her direction, running east
toward the neighbor’s house. She shifted direction again and ran through a path
that was hidden under the veil of trees. I was right on her heels and I heard
Adrian following us. She led me to a vacant lot across the street that was
bordered with a cement wall. She was cornered, the barrier blocked her escape.
She stopped and spun around to face me, her eyes wild and desperate. I stood in
my stance again ready to stop her. This was the person responsible from keeping
my friend from his sister. And because he meant so much to me, it was important
that we do everything we could to get her back.

Her eyes shifted around
us searching for an escape, but when she gazed over my shoulder her eyes
widened with shock, her face paled. Adrian came up from behind me and stood by
my side. He breathed in deeply and froze. So did the girl. Her eyes glazed and
nostrils flared. He took a step toward her and I watched open-mouthed as she
did the same. Electricity seemed to crackle through the air and I was worried
they were about to argue or worse, fight. I didn’t know her, but I knew his
sister wouldn’t be happy if he hurt the girl she called Eva.

Nothing happened
though; they only stared at each other for what seemed like several minutes. No
one spoke; their gazes were locked as the silence stretched between them.

After a few moments
with me not knowing what to do the girl shook her head, as if she was fighting
a trance. “Not you!” She spit out with a look of disgust before she dove into
the air, her clothes shredding and falling onto the pavement. She shoved Adrian
to the ground with her fore paws, his head hitting the ground with a sickening
thud as she bared her fangs at him. She was now a brown wolf, her claws digging
into his plaid shirt.

I froze not knowing
what was happening. He didn’t try to fight her off, only stared into the wolf’s
eyes.

She growled menacingly,
lowering her head until her muzzle hung just above his face.

I stepped forward
prepared to shove her off, but Adrian held up a hand. “Don’t, it’s okay, she
won’t hurt me.” His voice was below a whisper and it was edged with emotion.

Was he kidding? The
girl was in her wolf form practically foaming at the mouth in a rage. How did
he know she wouldn’t hurt him? She looked like she wanted to kill him.

The girl we knew as Eva
snapped her teeth at his neck narrowly missing his throat, but still he didn’t
push her off. At the last second before her teeth met with his skin she froze,
growled again and then jumped off of him. She rushed out of the lot and into
the neighboring trees. I stared after her for a few seconds shocked at what had
just happened.

Once she was gone I
bent down. “Are you okay?” I asked, holding out my hand to help my friend up.

He took it and when he
was standing, he stared off in the direction she had headed. He was silent,
lost in his own thoughts.

I started to follow her
and as I took a few steps forward, I looked over my shoulder. Adrian was still
frozen in place, his face in a daze. “What’s wrong?”

He glanced at me, his
eyes glassy. I should have known what was happening. But I didn’t. I had been
focussed solely on finding Marisa and I wasn’t expecting to hear what he said
next. “She’s mine,” he whispered, so lowly I had to strain to hear.

I took a few steps away
from the edge of the road, closing the distance between us. “I know. She’s your
sister and you will get her back.”

He shook his head. “No,
the girl…the werewolf. She’s mine and she’s the one that took Marisa.” His
voice was laced with pain and anguish. He turned around slowly and headed back
toward the apartment building.

I stood in place,
gaping after him as he moved away from me and the girl we had just been
chasing. “What?” I asked more to myself than to him. He was too far away now to
hear me. He was back on the path that led to the building. I followed him until
he approached the station wagon. When he opened the door, the hinges squawked
loudly, echoing through the alley.

I took a few weary
steps toward him, unsure of what was happening. “Are we just going to let her
go?” I gestured with my arm behind me in the direction she had disappeared in.

He was leaning inside the
vehicle, digging through a box when I approached. He stood up and nodded. “For
now.” He slammed the door shut and turned toward the building. “Let’s go and
look inside.”

I caught up with him in
the apartment stairway. “You mean she’s your mate?” How had I not realized
that? I had seen how Nate reacted to me, and Joe, when he first saw Lauren. It
was always the same glazed stare.

He didn’t turn around
as he ascended the stairs. “Hmm, mm”

“I thought you already
found your mate. You hinted at it when we first met.”

He reached the third
floor landing and pulled the door open. “I said that I liked someone. But I was
just saying that so you wouldn’t think I was into you. I didn’t want you to
back away from me.”

That made sense. I was
so confused at the time that if I thought he wanted more than just friendship I
would have run away from him screaming. The door slammed behind us as we
entered a hallway. I could smell the werewolf’s scent everywhere. But since I
didn’t know his sister’s, I just followed him. “But didn’t you know she was
yours before?” We passed the first white door; he paused for a second and then
kept moving. “You must have caught her scent in the last six months since
you’ve been chasing them.”

He moved to the next
door, the floor beneath us creaking as we stepped. He sniffed the air and then
shook his head as he moved on. “I never smelled her full scent, just traces of
it. I knew something was off about it, but since I had never found my mate
before I didn’t know what to expect.” He took a few more steps. “Besides, I
wouldn’t have really known until I saw her face-to-face. And now that I have,
there is no doubt.”

When he finished his
explanation I remembered him telling me that there was something different
about the scent of the werewolf. He wanted to know if I noticed. But at the
time the scent had disappeared and I didn’t smell anything. But when I finally
did smell it, I didn’t notice anything off. But I wouldn’t have, she wasn’t
mine.

He stopped in front of
a door and put his finger to his lips, in a gesture to shut me up. He grabbed
the doorknob and turned it, stepping inside.

I followed closely
behind and sniffed hard. The smell of cherry bubble-gum and human assaulted my
senses. That must be his sister. There was a tiny, galley kitchen to the right
that was bare of anything other than the brown cupboards and puce green
appliances. We stepped past and entered a dreary living room with faded blue
walls and ugly furniture that had seen better days.

We split up and headed
down the only hallway. I turned into the first bedroom and he took the one at
the end. My room was meant to be Marisa’s. And I knew this not because of my
great detective skills, but from the name scribbled on the box that lay on the
single bed. But, unfortunately, that was all that was in the room. Marisa was
nowhere to be found.

“There’s nobody here,”
Adrian announced coming up behind me. The frustration in his voice was loud and
clear.

Just as he left the
room to go explore, I got a text; Nate was boarding the plane. He’d be there in
two hours.

I sat down on the
single bare mattress and glanced around. The only sign of his sister was the
box and a leather bag on the floor. Three paperback books lay on the
nightstand. The apartment must have been furnished because there was no way the
furniture would have fit in that car.

I peered into the box
and pulled out a pile of framed pictures. As I was looking through them Adrian
appeared in the doorway. “Are these your parents?” Although I asked the
question, I already knew the answer. It was a family photo, with Adrian looking
exactly the same and two older people that were obviously his mom and dad. A
little girl of about four was sitting on Adrian’s lap. In the picture her hand
was resting on his cheek and his parents were looking at them smiling. The love
that emanated from the picture was evident.

He held out his hand.
When I placed the photo in his palm he smiled, his eyes lighting up. “Yes, it
was the last family picture before I moved away to college.”

As he gazed at his
family, I looked at the next photo. This one was of Marisa who appeared to be
about ten. She was standing in front of a birthday cake with Eva standing next
to her. They were hugging and grinning at the camera. His sister did not appear
to be a victim, being held against her will. She looked happy. The next one was
of the two of them again with their faces touching. It looked like Eva was
holding the camera out in front of them. Again, their smiles were bright and
happy. The last one was of just Adrian’s parents on their wedding day.