Steal the Moon (40 page)

I took a deep breath and held on to Dev’s waist. It was time for us to take care of ourselves, and I had the sudden feeling we weren’t anywhere close to being ready for the task.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Quinn,” Mitchell addressed Dev, “my fight is with the girl. We’ve been kicked out. My place as alpha has been challenged. McKenzie is sending in three strong candidates to replace me. I have to fight and kill all three if I want to keep my spot.”

“You won’t survive.” Dev looked around for anything that might help us.

“You think I don’t know that? That’s the point. They’re going to kill me, my son, and my second in command,” Mitchell spat. “McKenzie wants all of us out because of her. I’m going to kill her, Quinn. Walk away now and I’ll let you live. I don’t have a fight with you.”

“Walk away from my mate?” Dev laughed, using terms the wolves would understand. “That’s not going to happen and you know it.”

“It’s your funeral,” Mitchell replied.

“And how will McKenzie handle it when you kill me?” Dev asked suddenly, trying to keep the werewolf talking. “He’s going to know it’s you, Mitchell. No one else wants me dead. The rest of the wolves need me alive. McKenzie will hunt you down. For that matter so will my brother.”

Mitchell smiled, a pale imitation of joy. “You seem to think I got something to live for, Quinn. You don’t understand. The alphas are just a legal way to kill me. If I run, McKenzie will have me assassinated. He’s done with my family and all because we won’t have a queer in it. You should have stayed out of this.”

Mitchell changed. His wolf was a large black thing with powerful muscles and a set of razor-sharp teeth.

In my experience with wolves, they rarely just up and attack. They greatly prefer to elicit a maximum dose of fear from their victims. I’ve never had it confirmed, but I often suspected some wolves feed just a little from the raw emotion that courses through you when realizing that you’re about to be eaten alive. I would have used my speed dial—because this was one of those times I’d promised to give Lee a little call—but I was underdressed for the occasion. I was the dumbass who wore a short cotton robe and no shoes to a wolf fight. My cell phone, like Dev’s shiny, would-have-been-really-helpful gun, was sitting on the nightstand.

Unlike a regular, plain old doesn’t-turn-into-anything else wolf, the werewolf will split their targets. A normal wolf pack will choose the weakest target and all of the pack will attack, leaving a Darwinian shot for the stronger animal to flee. This would not be the case with us. If Dev or I tried to run to increase the chance of the other surviving, they would simply split up and run us down separately. I tried to remember just how far we had come into the woods. How far away were we from the tent and the range of Lee’s supersensitive ears?

“Stay behind me, Zoey,” Dev said quietly as the wolves growled.

“So they can eat me second?” I didn’t see how that was going to help.

I didn’t need to see his face to know he was rolling his eyes. “Yes, my sarcastic love. I want them to eat you second. Have a little faith.”

Dev hands were at his sides and now his fingers spread apart, splaying wide. I felt his skin get hot as his magic grew. The wolves reared back and as they attacked, vines shot out from the ground, thick shiny roots and glorious arms of green pulling at the wolves’ limbs, carrying them to the ground. The wolves struggled mightily, using their teeth and claws to chew at the ties that bound them.

Dev moved quickly. “Time to get up, sweetheart.”

He held his hands out to give me a boost up the nearest pine. I planted my foot in his interlaced palms, hurrying because I could hear the wolves struggling to break free. Dev used his strength to shove me up. My hands gripped the lowest branch and it almost felt like it was going to break under my weight. Miraculously, it held and I climbed up to the second, much more stable branch above it. I leaned down, reaching for Dev.

“Not going to happen, lover,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got a good seventy pounds on you.” He turned back to the wolves, two of whom had gotten free. “Stay where you are no matter what happens. Declan will look for us. Go with him, Zoey.”

“Dev,” I yelled as the first wolf pounced. I saw blood and just started screaming.

The black wolf was at Dev’s throat. He managed to kick up with his legs, pushing the wolf back. There was a deep scratch across his cheek and the wolf had taken a bite out of his arm. Blood began to well up. God, I couldn’t lose them both in one night.

Dev kicked his legs up and was suddenly on his feet again. He picked up a heavy branch that had fallen from one of the trees and wielded it like a baseball bat. The other wolf was kicking and biting his way free.

I screamed for Lee, praying he could hear me with those freaky sensitive ears of his. The wolves circled Dev now, and he didn’t dare throw down the only weapon he had. They would be on top of him before he could call anything else. I had one option.

Dev needed a diversion.

I looked at the forest floor below me. It was a good twelve feet away. I needed to hit the forest floor running as fast as I could. It was instinctive for a wolf to chase something that was running. It might give Dev a chance to try something else, and if it didn’t then we would both be dead anyway and he wouldn’t have a chance to yell at me. I leapt, but before I could reach the ground, two strong arms caught me. Daniel looked at me with a frown.

“Not on your life, baby,” he said before he shoved me back into the tree. “Stay there, Z.”

Dev brought the stick he held down on the yellow wolf’s head with a satisfying crack. The wolf howled but was back up and snarling as the black wolf was leaping onto Dev.

Daniel pulled the black wolf by the tail and swung its heavy frame through the air in a circle until it crunched against the trunk of a tree.

I heard the wolf’s spine break. Daniel let Mitchell Roberts drop as he changed forms, his human body hitting the ground. Daniel pulled the gray wolf off Dev, who had fallen down. The wolf tried to take Dev’s leg with him but Daniel reached down, putting a hand on the top and bottom of the wolf’s jaw and just pulling.

It didn’t take much before the jaw split and the wolf whimpered. Daniel, now with a nice coating of blood, had his fangs out. He pulled the injured wolf up and twisted his slack-jawed head around until it broke and the wolf fell silent.

Dev sat up and pulled himself out of the line of fire as Daniel turned to the last wolf standing.

The wolf whinnied and backed away, realizing it was facing a bigger, badder predator. He tried to avert his eyes, to give Daniel his submission. I could have told him that was never going to save him. He’d tried to kill me, and Daniel wasn’t going to accept an apology.

Daniel can call wolves. It was a talent he used rarely, but he now called on it to force Wyatt Roberts to change. Daniel held out his hand and his magic spoke to Wyatt’s power. Unwilling, Wyatt fought the change, and the pain was apparent from the way he screamed.

Daniel showed no mercy.

I dropped out of the tree, perfectly safe now that Daniel had made sure none of the wolves could move of their own volition, and I made my way to Dev. I grimaced at his wounds as Daniel and Wyatt fought to gain control of Wyatt’s body. There was no doubt in my mind about the outcome, so I focused on Dev. His leg was the worst. It was bloody, and I could see a chunk of flesh had been torn out. I ran my fingers through his hair and kissed his forehead. He sat there, completely exhausted, but watching the scene before him with rapt intensity.

Daniel had come for us. Dev’s fingers threaded through mine. There was still hope.

Wyatt was finally in human form, and his whole body shook, terror on his face.

“It was my father’s idea,” Wyatt said, practically pleading.

“Was it your father’s idea to try to kill my wife?” Daniel asked. It was his beast talking. His eyes were glowing a sapphire blue, and he pinned Wyatt with his will. The wolf tried to run but found his feet wouldn’t move. This was vampire persuasion at its finest. “You will tell me the truth. What would you have done with my wife had you caught her?”

“I would have raped her.” Forced by Daniel’s persuasion, Wyatt’s mouth spoke the truth. “I would have raped her and gutted her with my claws. I would have bathed in her blood.”

Daniel crossed the space between himself and Wyatt in one of those quicker-than-my-eye-can-see moves. One moment Wyatt was standing and the next he crumpled like a broken doll, but not before I saw a gap open in his chest and blood bloom across his white skin. Daniel turned back, and I saw a heart in his hands.

Daniel crossed the ground to where Mitchell Roberts was lying, his spine shattered and unable to move.

Daniel dropped the heart in front of him and knelt beside the man. “Your line dies now. The only one left to carry your name is the only one you denied. He won’t weep for you.”

“Kill me, Donovan.” Mitchell could barely speak.

Dev forced himself up.

“What are you doing?” I asked, scrambling to help him stand.

Daniel pulled a wicked knife out of his boot, offering it to Dev. I stilled my surprise. It went against Daniel’s nature to offer Dev a piece of his kill when it came to revenge. Daniel was a killer, but a quick, efficient one for the most part. He was only brutal when those he cared about were threatened, and then he acted ruthlessly and always in a singular fashion. Offering Dev that knife was a sign of respect. It said Dev had as much to lose as Daniel. Daniel was acknowledging Dev had the right to defend me. “Would you like the honors? You suffered more.”

“He’s hurt,” I objected because a good portion of his calf was missing and I didn’t care who killed Mitchell Roberts as long as he was dead.

Dev ignored me and took the knife. He went to his knees in front of Wyatt and held the knife over his head.

“Take the heart,” Daniel said, directing Dev. “It’s tradition.”

I watched as Dev brought the knife down and ended Mitchell Roberts’s life. He carved up the chest with brute strength, and his hands were covered in blood by the time it was over.

“I don’t have to eat it or anything?” Dev asked, and I could tell he really was interested in the answer.

“I wouldn’t advise it.” Daniel walked toward me, and I thought he was going to go to the pond behind us.

Daniel always tried to hide that savage part of himself. He would wash off the blood and change his clothes and pretend he hadn’t ripped someone’s heart out. He would walk back to me and tell me he didn’t love me and order me into a
sithein
for my own protection. I waited for him to walk past me like I didn’t matter.

Covered in blood, fangs out and eyes gone to blue, Daniel walked up and went to his knees before me. Shaking, he put his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. Daniel buried his head in the valley of my chest and listened to my heart beat.

If I backed up for even an instant, I knew I would lose him. He was offering me all of himself—Daniel, the good, the bad, and the beast within.

If I hesitated, he would walk away and never open himself to me again. He would go to this Tamara person, and he would love me from afar because he wouldn’t feel worthy.

There wasn’t even a tiny piece of me that hesitated. I threw my arms around him, holding him close. I didn’t care that he was covered in blood or that his fangs grazed my skin. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him to me like he would disappear if I didn’t. He held me tight but finally his head turned toward me and I leaned down and kissed him, tasting blood and feeling fangs. I kissed him with all the love I had.

“I don’t blame you for Joel, Zoey,” he said quietly. “He was twenty-three years old and I talked him into following me. He should have been in grad school, drinking beer and trying to figure out how to spend the rest of his life. I killed him, Z. I did it.”

“Danny, you didn’t mean for him to die,” I replied, aching with his pain. “This is war and people are going to die. All we can do is fight and try to make their deaths mean something.”

“I tried that line of reasoning on him,” Dev said tiredly.

“What if I get you killed, Z?” Daniel asked, stating finally which fear was pressing him now.

I looked down at him and sighed. “Daniel, you either love me enough to take that risk or you don’t. I’m going to die someday. I can take your blood every day and I’ll still die on you. Are you willing to throw away the hundred and fifty years we could have together because one day it’s going to end? If you are then walk away now, baby. If you love me, be brave enough to risk losing me.”

“I’m not going to hide myself anymore,” Daniel said. “I’m tired of it and I think that it’s more for me than it is for you. Can you love me, Zoey? Can you be with me as I am now?”

“I don’t want you any other way,” I said fiercely, meaning it. I wouldn’t change him.

“I’m sorry, Z,” Daniel said. “Please forgive me. I was being a coward. I won’t do it again. I promise.”

I kissed him soundly in reply.

Daniel got to his feet and his face was back to normal. He walked to Dev and gave him a hand up. “Dev, I promise I won’t try to leave again. I’m sorry.” He was even more hesitant with Dev than he’d been with me.