Wolf Moon (9 page)

She nodded, looking sympathetic.
“Yeah, he told me what happened to your partner. I’m so sorry.”

I clenched my fork so
tightly,
I felt the thick metal bend in my palm. My mouth
went dry in an instant, and I grabbed my wine, willing the sting in my eyes to
disappear before I blew everything. They’d never buy that Nick and I were
together if I started crying over the loss of another man.

“From what I heard,” a
voice sounded from across the table. I looked up and saw Jackson looking at me.
“He was pretty brave. Went up against one of
Gianna’s
spawn to defend her.”

I smiled my appreciation,
and Nick’s hand moved up and down my back to soothe me. I mouthed a silent
“thank you” to Jackson, who looked back down at his plate and took another
heaping forkful.

“
I
heard she got away,” Roxanne’s grating voice interjected.

“Cool it, Roxy,” Nick
warned. “We got her in the end.”

She scoffed. “Wouldn’t
have had to ‘get her’ at all if you’d dealt with the corpse in the first place.
But you were careless.” She was irrationally angry
at
Nick, and there seemed to be a great deal of blame in her tone.

“That wasn’t his fault,”
I shot back, remembering the night we found Samantha’s body. “There were cops
everywhere. When I stumbled across Jackson, he was hiding in the woods.
Possibly waiting for the right moment.”

Roxanne looked surprised,
looking down her side of the table at Jackson, whose attention was still solely
focused on his plate. “I don’t recall hearing that Jackson was there.”

“Regardless of what you
heard, Roxanne,” Nick quickly said, “Brooke tracked and killed
Gianna
…and well
within her first month of being turned. When was your first kill?”

That shut her up, but she
shot daggers in my direction with a silent snarl that said I should probably
watch my back. Of course, her silence was too good to be true as she muttered
under her breath, “Seems almost suspicious that she bagged the queen of the
hive her first time out.”

Swallowing thickly, I
ignored her and looked to Nick. “Can we change the topic, please? I’m still not
ready to openly talk about this.”

Looking apologetic, Nick
picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles. I had to keep on reminding myself
that it was all just for show; it was the only way to keep my guilt from eating
at me. “Of course, babe.”

The conversation shifted
to Karl’s expedition in Ottawa. He was apparently sent out when one of the
local Packs started having issues with some strays hunting humans. He seemed
all too eager to share every gory detail while we all ate. Not that this diminished
my appetite at all; I’d finished my plate and was staring at the rest of the
uneaten food with a look of longing in my eyes. I wanted more. It made no
sense, because I’d piled the same amount of food on my plate that I usually did
now. And yet…

Nick nudged me with his
elbow after hearing my stomach gurgle. “Brooke, if you’re still hungry,
eat
. There’s plenty to go around.”

My stomach growled again,
and I shook my head. “I’ve already eaten a ton. I don’t want to appear
gluttonous,” I whispered.

Nick chuckled. “We’re
days away from a full moon, and you haven’t mastered shifting on your own yet.
Your body is preparing itself. You need the extra calories.”

“He’s right, dear,”
Miranda spoke up sweetly. “Help yourself to anything you want or need.” She
smirked and then shot me a wink. “Just be sure to save room for dessert.

Still hesitant, I
self-consciously piled more food on my plate and proceeded to eat it without a
problem. By the end of my second plate, I felt satiated, but when Colby brought
in the various pies—apple, pumpkin, cherry, and lemon meringue—I
couldn’t help but have a slice. I chose pumpkin since I’d missed Thanksgiving
and Nick had apple, so we shared.

After dinner, I offered
to help clear the table, but Colby—who seemed absolutely sweet and
charming—told me not to worry about it. Miranda agreed and suggested I
get a little more comfortable first, and that there would be plenty of time in
the future to pitch in.

So, with the evening
clear, Nick suggested we take a walk. I had yet to acquire a winter jacket, so
Nick gave me one of
Layla’s
to borrow until we could
head into the city to buy me a few things.

The sky was dark already
as we stepped out into the frigid night air and walked around the house. There
were enough lamp posts throughout the yard to light our way, plus the stars and
moon were unobstructed by clouds or pollution, really setting the scene for a romantic
walk—if that was what we were on.

Nick took me past the
tennis court, and I absorbed my surroundings a little more carefully now that I
wasn’t being overwhelmed with anger and hurt like earlier. He showed me the
back of the house where the indoor pool was. It was enclosed in a large glass
building, and I watched as several of the Pack filtered through the doors in
their swimwear. Karl caught me looking as he dropped his towel, maybe hoping to
entice me. I shuddered and looked away, hating the way his eyes seemed to undress
me.

“Cold?” Nick asked,
wrapping a protective arm around me.

“A little, I guess,” I
said. Then I remembered what he had said about no more secrets. “What’s Karl’s
deal? The way he looks at me is unnerving… Was he the one you warned me about?”

With a sigh, Nick nodded.
“He has yet to find his mate, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to test out
any of the females we bring into the Pack. Roxy and
Layla
have gotten used to his crass antics—
Layla’s
even put Karl in his place a few times, which is a sight to behold—but
he’s more wolf than man, being born a full-blood. His parents weren’t part of
this Pack or any other, so he doesn’t really ‘get’ the process.”

“So, if he wasn’t raised
in the Pack, how did he get in?”

“His parents were killed
by another group of
weres
—some kind of
territorial war, from what Marcus told me. He was young when Marcus’
predecessor found him.
Eleven, maybe twelve.
He
invited him in, but he wasn’t unable to change his mentality entirely. He does
what he wants when he wants, and perilously skirts Pack Law. Especially when it
comes to another wolf’s mate.”

Nick and I continued
walking, and he took me to the gazebo I’d sought refuge in earlier. He sniffed
the air, and I did the same, knowing instantly what he smelled.

“You and Jackson were
here?” He seemed uneasy, maybe worried about something. “Together?”

I nodded once, wrapping
my arms around myself like I was cold. “We were.”

“You talked?”

“We did. He found me in
here earlier and told me about his family,” I confessed, worried that maybe he
thought Jackson overstepped his boundaries. “That’s it.”

Nick seemed surprised.
“Wow. That’s a big step for him. He’s usually reluctant to open up like that to
anyone.”

“I think he wanted me to
know that I wasn’t alone,” I whispered, sitting on the bench.

“Still… Definitely
explains how he was quick to jump to your defense at the table. Makes me wonder
what his ulterior motive is.”

I looked up at him as he
paced in front of me. “He can’t just be cordial? He has to have some sinister
plan for befriending me after what he did in the park that night?”

Nick exhaled heavily, his
breath creating a dense fog as it mingled with the cold winter air. “Listen,
Brooke… About that night—”

Suddenly, a scream
pierced the night, forcing me to my feet. We took off across the yard and
headed back toward the front of the house. There stood Colby and Zach, his arms
around her protectively as she clung to his jacket, her face buried against his
chest.

“What is it?” Nick
demanded as we both came to a stop beside them.

I smelled the blood
before I saw the steam rising up from the driveway, and when I looked down, I
gasped loudly, reaching out and grabbing Nick’s arm, my nails digging into his
bicep even through his parka while my other hand covered my mouth.

There, on the ground, was
a wolf. Not a werewolf from the smell of it. No, this was one hundred percent
animal. I didn’t know the different breeds of wolves that were out there, having
been born and raised in Arizona where wolves were a rarity in and of
themselves, but it was gray and white and about the size of a German Shepherd.
It had been cut from pelvis to throat, all of its organs spilling out onto the
snow-covered concrete, and its eyes were wide and unseeing. Frozen in shock and
pain for all eternity.

Nick stepped forward, but
I remained paralyzed in place, being forced to relinquish my hold on him. He
knelt down next to the animal, cringing as the smell hit him harder than a
second ago. “It’s a gray wolf,” he announced. “Not anyone we know.” While I’d
already suspected it wasn’t one of our
kind
, I assumed
he was saying this for Colby’s benefit.

I turned toward her and
found that
we’d been joined by the rest of the Pack
,
and Marcus did not look pleased as he stared off into the night. I knew in that
instant what was happening…

Someone—and I
didn’t know who—had just declared war on the Pack.

J
ackson stepped forward
to help Nick clear away the animal’s corpse while Vince ran to the garage,
returning with a tarp to make the task easier. Before getting started, Nick
turned to the rest of us.

“You
can all head inside,” he said as Marcus stepped forward, sniffing the air. I
did the same, picking up the subtle notes of the vampire that dumped the body.
He was going to try tracking it. Maybe I could help.

I
took another step forward while everyone else went inside. When Nick noticed,
he stood up straight and stepped in my path. “Brooke, please.”

I
shook my head, looking to Marcus and then back at Nick. “I can help,” I told
him.

Marcus
looked interested, but Nick continued to shoot me down. “No. It’s too soon.
You’re not ready.”

“I
was a cop, Nick. At least let me look around. Walk the scene before you guys
compromise it further.”

Nick
opened his mouth to argue, but Marcus stopped him. “Let her try,” he said, much
to Nick’s chagrin. “She wants to be helpful. No
use in
sending her inside like
a timid female.”

I
smiled brightly, my ego puffing slightly. Nick, however, was not impressed, but
he didn’t dare argue with his Alpha. “Thank you.”

Nick
and Jackson backed away, allowing me through. I looked around the body,
eliminating their footprints from my mental evidence bank. However, there were
so many other sets that I’d have to compare with anyone who’d been outside
today. I smelled the air, the scent fading, but still there, even amid the
blood. Marcus had a better nose for it though, because he followed it, telling
us all to stay put. Nick seemed uneasy about this decision, and something told
me it was because Marcus was the Alpha and he typically didn’t venture off
without some kind of backup.

No
different than my dad never heading out on an investigation without a team.
Strength in numbers was the only way to go.

I
continued to look around, not finding anything I could deem useful in tracking.
Perhaps Nick was right; it was too soon. I really wasn’t ready.

Just
as I was about to admit defeat, a twig snapped in the trees to the left of the
house. I took off toward it, knowing it wasn’t Marcus or any of the others
based on the scent I caught. It was a vampire. Not necessarily the same
vampire, though. Unfortunately, I was unable to tell because they all smelled
the same: horrible.

Nick
and Jackson were hot on my trail as I whipped through the trees, pushing most
of the reed-thin branches out of my way while the others snapped against my
body painfully. I didn’t care though; I was on a mission.

“Brooke!”
Nick called. “Wait up! You don’t know what’s out there!”

“Listen
to him, kid!” Jackson agreed, but I couldn’t stop. My legs continued to move as
though apart from my body. I was hunting.

I
fell to a stop where the rancid smell was most concentrated and looked around.
There were no footprints besides those of a few animals—the Pack included—and
the ones I just made in my mad dash to get here. So, what snapped?

I
looked up in the trees, moving in a slow circle, and when my eyes caught a
flash of copper against the night sky, my stomach lurched, and I gasped, slapping
my hands over my mouth in horror. Nick and Jackson caught up, noticed where I
was looking, and followed my gaze.

There,
about five feet above us, was a red-haired woman, hanging from a tree branch
with a noose tied expertly around her slender neck. She had been stripped of
all her clothes and blood ran down her body, all the way down her legs until it
dripped from her toes and onto the freshly fallen snow. I sniffed again,
realizing in an instant that the blood didn’t belong to her. It was from the wolf
we’d found in the driveway.

As
if the dead wolf wasn’t message enough to the pack, this little stunt was directed
solely at Nick and me.

It
was obvious that the woman represented me, and someone was showing Nick exactly
what they planned to do if they ever caught me.

The
two questions on my mind were: who and why?
Gianna
was gone. Had she left explicit instructions to carry out her sadistic plan in
the wake of her demise?

I
was rattled. Chilled right to the marrow in my bones. All I could see was that poor
woman, hanging by her neck in that tree, fresh red blood dripping down her
naked body and onto the crisp white snow. I knew it was a message—a
threat—and so did Nick. He’d told me only days ago that
Gianna
had promised revenge against him for what he did to
Bobby and the rest of her ranks up in Alaska, and when she failed in Scottsdale,
she somehow brought the fight here from beyond her grave.

Right to the doorstep of the Pack.

The
wolf, while undoubtedly a declaration of war, was quite possibly also a diversion.
As a cop, I recognized this as a way to separate us. Whoever planted it had
likely banked on Nick going off on his own and finding this extremely personal
message.

And
it pissed him off.

I’d
seen Nick angry before, but never like this. With a feral growl, he doubled
over. The sound of his bones cracking echoed through the woods. I was so close,
I could feel the heat radiating off of his body as the fever took over. I
watched his skin ripple under his shirt as his bones realigned beneath it. The
sweater he wore tightened over his expanding, then contracting, rib cage and he
cried out with the first rip. His inhuman hands dug into the snow until they
pulled up frozen earth. It sounded part painful and part wild, and before I
knew what was happening, I was being yanked away by Jackson.

“Get
back!” he ordered firmly, shoving me behind him as Nick’s clothes shredded and
fell from his transforming body.

He
was mid-transition when he turned to find us watching him. His body was darker
and discolored, fur sprouting up in patches. His teeth had grown and were
sharper, while the blue of his eyes had almost been completely overtaken by the
amber rings around his pupils. He looked horrified with himself for having lost
control. I wanted to comfort him, but Jackson turned us away, wrapping one arm
around my waist and grabbing my bicep tightly with his other hand as he ushered
me from the trees. As soon as we broke free of them, an anguished howl sounded,
and my heart clenched. I couldn’t explain it, but my instincts wanted me to go
after him…to comfort him. He needed me.

“What
happened?” Marcus demanded, coming from the other side of the house, his eyes
wide and panicked. “I heard Nick.”

“He…uh…he…”
Shock had settled in now, my brain unable to form the explanation, and I
continued to stammer. I looked back and forth between Marcus and the trees
where we left Nick.

“He
shifted,” Jackson helped out. “Brooke picked up on something and tracked it to
the trees over there.” He gestured in the direction we just came from. “There
was a message for him from one of
Gianna’s
parasites.”

Marcus
looked at me, then Jackson. “Which was?”

“A
woman,” I croaked. “She’s dead. I-I
think
it was
supposed to be me. Stripped, bleeding, and hanging from a tree.” Noticing the
alarmed look on Marcus’ face, I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat,
and my whole body shivered when I remembered Nick’s tortured cry. “I-I’ve never
seen him like that before.”

“C’mon,
kid,”
Jackson
said. “I’ll take you inside and go look
for him. I’m sure he’s just working through it.”

My
limbs moved as though trudging through molasses, my thoughts foggy and muddled,
and Jackson really had to work to get me into the house and up the stairs.
Outside, I heard another howl, recognizing it as Nick’s, then another I didn’t.
I stopped in the middle of the stairs, my body tense before a tremble took
over.

Jackson
ran his hand up and down my arm. “
It’s
just Marcus.
Probably trying to locate him. Let’s get you settled in your room and I’ll go
out too, okay?”

Eyebrows
pulled together with worry, I met his gaze and nodded slowly before we continued
to ascend the staircase. We walked down the hall, my limbs moving as though disconnected
from my body, slow and jerky, feet barely lifting off the floor.

Once
in my room, Jackson sat me on the edge of the bed and crouched before me.
“Brooke?” I looked at him, but I didn’t really
see
him. My vision was clouded with fear. Fear for Nick. Fear for
myself. Fear for the Pack I’d barely joined.

“You
going to be okay, kid?”

Shaking
my head to clear the murky confusion, I snapped myself out of it. “Yeah. Go.
I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.
Miranda’s somewhere in the house.
If you need
anything, just call for her, okay?” I nodded again before he cupped my face to
lock my gaze to his. “Stay here otherwise. I’ll bring him home in one piece.”

Jackson
left me alone then, and I waited. I didn’t know how long I waited, but I
waited. I stayed on the end of the bed before my nerves got the better of me.
Soon, I was pacing the room, biting my
thumb nail
—a
nervous habit I’d given up in my late-teen years.

Based
on the alarm clock on Nick’s bedside table, more than an hour had passed.
Though, to be honest, it felt like longer. When I saw a flash of light move in
the yard, I sprinted across the room, pressed my palms flat against the windows—I’d
worry about the handprints tomorrow—and strained my eyes to see if I
could spot him.

I
couldn’t, so I went back to pacing. Back and forth, I moved in front of the
large windows, occasionally looking out to see if they’d found him.

Then
the bedroom door opened suddenly, startling me, but not nearly as much as the
sight of a very nude Nick walking back into the room. My eyes remained on his
and not his lack of clothes as I took an awkward step forward. His posture was
rigid. I sensed apprehension and fear as well as something else…shame? I continued
forward, wanting to set his mind at ease, but he stopped me, turning toward his
dresser where he grabbed a pair of black sweats and pulled them on.

He
turned again, but hesitated. His eyes reflected the shame I sensed moments
before, and I still struggled to understand why.

Then
it hit me: he’d lost control, which was rare for him. But he did, and he lost
control because I had been threatened. Whoever was responsible had wanted to
confirm his weakness, and stringing up some innocent woman on our property had
done exactly that.

I
could see he needed to be reassured that everything was fine, so I took another
step toward him. “Nick,” I said softly. “Thank God you’re okay.”

His
rigid posture softened slightly, and he reached for me. Relieved, I fell into
his arms, wrapping mine around his waist as he enveloped me entirely. He still
smelled of the crisp winter air, mixed with the subtle notes of his recent
shift, and I breathed him in, repeating over and over to myself that he was
okay.

He
kissed the top of my head once before resting his cheek on it, and I let him
without my guilt taking over. I suspected the reasoning for this was that my
relief eclipsed it. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled. “You shouldn’t have seen that.
I should have been better prepared to deal with that sort of thing. It isn’t
the first time she’s threatened you. I should have known she’d have some kind
of contingency plan in place should she not make it back here.”

“I
know.” I tightened my arms around him. “And it’s okay. You have nothing to
apologize for.”

Nick
loosened his hold on me, bringing his hands to my cheeks and urging our gazes
to meet. His eyes were bluer than I’d ever seen them, intense and searing. “I
can’t remember the last time I lost control like that,” he confessed. “Marcus
had trouble getting me to calm down enough to shift back.”

“But
you did,” I told him, wrapping my hands around his thick wrists as his thumbs
moved over my cheekbones. “You were scared—so was I.”

Nick
inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against mine. “I
won’t let her freak show of followers hurt you,” he promised.

“And
I won’t let them think they can,” I responded lightly. “You forget… I took out
their almighty leader two weeks after my first full moon.”

Nick
laughed, and I felt his stress alleviate slightly as his fingers curled against
the skin on the back of my neck. “How could I forget?”

“You
can’t,” I quipped. “I won’t let you.”

“I
wouldn’t expect any less.” His eyes opened, and while I could still see that
glimmer of fear hanging on relentlessly, I also saw a desire that lit a spark
in me, as well.

Soon
the aqua color of his eyes lightened to the
ice-blue
of David’s eyes, and it freaked me out. It was just a trick that my mind was
playing on me, but it was enough to make me balk. I took several steps back,
clenching my eyes shut as the guilt clawed its way back up from where it had
been lying dormant the last couple hours.