“You can look at him.” The woman laughed. “Every wolf looks down when they first get here. He doesn’t mind eye contact. Lifetimes of lowered gazes. I think my mate has seen enough of the top of everyone’s forehead.”
Any man who would let a woman speak for him had to be relatively calm. Beaux risked raising his gaze and didn’t get struck down for it.
The original Alpha shook his head.
“The Alpha Prime over there dropped his eyes. Everyone does it. Here? I am not concerned with such formalities.”
“Where is here? I mean…I can’t smell anything at all, which is horribly disconcerting. And…the fact I’m here…am I dead?”
He tried to keep his voice level. His entire being rose up to protest the idea. No way should he be dead. He wasn’t done yet, not close.
His mate was out there somewhere alone, maybe hurt. Again. Hell, he’d never gotten to really mate her. That was unacceptable. He wouldn’t—couldn’t—let another woman in his life be harmed on his watch.
“Do you think you’re dead?” Lily took a step forward, her dark hair swinging over her shoulder. “Do you want it all to be over? To come home to us?”
“See, there’s the thing.” He rocked forward on his heels, desperate to move, to do anything except stand still and simply be over. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. It’s amazing to be in your presence, but where is the Moon? We come back to the Moon in the end. Not here, not alone without its celestial presence to guide us home.”
“And you’re so sure the way you describe it, the Moon greeting, that’s how these things end?”
The First Male rubbed his mate’s shoulder, a gesture speaking of how comfortable they were with each other’s touch. What would it have been like to have known Lake so easily? To be allowed to stroke her because he simply wanted to? An ache formed in his chest. A hollow gaping hole he’d never fill without her.
“Beaux has always been sure of his path. No room for doubt, no ability to question what he believes.” Lucian spoke quickly.
“When I need or want you to speak for me, I’ll let you know”
The Alpha Male laughed and Lucian visibly flinched. They weren’t on Lucian’s farm. If this was the afterlife, Beaux wasn’t going to begin it by kowtowing to a person he didn’t care for when they’d been alive.
Weren’t there ancestors who could have greeted him? His late wife? Anyone would be better than eternity listening to Lucian.
“I question things all the time. I’m as capable of doubting my faith as anyone. I didn’t turn to the Moon until adulthood. I learned long ago to accept what my soul told me as truth and to let it guide me where I need to go. What can any of us do other than listen to the small still voice inside of us and let it take us where we belong? To me, the sound has always been the Moon. And listening to others talk about all of it simply being a myth or a creation story has always been counterproductive to me.”
Lucian spoke again. “I never objected to your beliefs, boy. It was the return to the old ways, to things left in the past, which I couldn’t get behind. Not every wolf is Cyrus. The other Alphas are moon worshipers. Cyrus’ mate has turned to the Moon. Only you advocate leaving the humans to themselves, to living some kind of life separate from the rest of the world. Frankly, I found your opinions kind of dangerous.”
“How did jumping in with the humans go for you, Lucian? We still don’t know who killed you. Which of the True Believes took off your head and destroyed your body nearly beyond recognition?”
Lucian flinched, and Beaux knew he’d hit his mark. If the former Alpha Prime wanted to play dirty, Beaux could follow suit.
“Now, boys,” Lily said. “Now is not the time or place. There will be plenty of eternity for you to work this out. And, for the record, Lucian, Cyrus is a moon worshiper. Even if he doesn’t publicly acknowledge it. He dropped to his knees when his mate was hurt. He asked for help when his sister went missing. Don’t mistake the persona he puts on for the wolf he is inside.”
“He’s not portraying me accurately either,” Beaux said.
Beaux had been there when Lake’s brother had fallen to the ground and begged the Moon for help. It wasn’t a moment he would ever discuss with anyone. Grief had to be private, especially when you had someone there to witness it. Cyrus’ cry for help would stay between Cyrus, Beaux, and the Moon for as long as Beaux could form coherent thought. Lucian wouldn’t hear about it from him.
He continued. “I don’t believe we can possibly eliminate the humans from our lives. What I advocate is a return to what made us strong to begin with. Trying to be them is what brought the True Believers to our door. We’re weaker now than we’ve ever been, and our kind feels lost and alone, including within pack community. I may not be entirely right, although I think most wolves have to admit I’m not totally off either.”
Lily and the First Alpha exchanged a glance before looking back at him.
Finally, she spoke. “Lake is the Healer Prime. You do understand what the role entails?”
“A lifetime of service. Strength, wisdom, pain. She’ll have my love each second of every day I’m living.”
Lily took her mate’s hand. “If you want to go home, ask the Moon.”
He shook his head. “It’s not here.”
“It’s always there, Beaux. Especially when you can’t see it. Do try to remember when all the truths you think you know shatter around you.”
What did she mean? He opened his mouth to ask and stopped the second he felt the light on his arms. Goose bumps broke out on his body. He reared back to look upward, then it took a second for him to really understand what he saw. The moon wasn’t missing. No. By contrast, it was so huge it covered the entire sky. Every inch of visible space appeared filled up by the grandeur of the celestial orb floating in the sky.
He dropped to his knees. “Take me home.” Beaux wasn’t above begging, not when it came to getting back to Lake. “Please.”
“You know this might all be a dream.” Lucian spoke softly. “I am dead after all. You might have a really screwed-up subconscious.”
“Why do you feel so compelled to needle him?” Lily’s voice was the last he heard before the world once again faded to black.
****
“I think he’s back with us.”
Beaux shot upright. His heart raced, and his palms were drenched in sweat. What had happened? Images flooded and fled his mind in rapid succession.
“Hey, buddy.” Travis Michaels limped over to him. “Thought we lost you for a second there. Trista has been working on you all night.”
“I’m not Lake. She’d have had him fixed up in no time flat.”
Beaux regarded the small woman talking. He’d never seen the small redhead before, but one look at the ink on her arms and he knew she had to belong to Travis’ pack. She must be his Healer.
“Lake wasn’t here. You did remarkably. I’m proud of you.”
Travis placed his hand on her arm, and the woman beamed.
“I’m glad he’s okay.”
“Where is Lake?” He tried to get off the bed where he lay.
The room spun, and he decided maybe another couple of moments were required before he could leap to his feet.
“We’re not sure.” Travis sighed. “She was gone from the restaurant when things started to clear. I was pretty out of it. Hell, I’d be dead if not for you. And Cyrus wasn’t moving.” He shook his head. “I finally got the humans away from us; they wanted to help. You know, such a mess if we end up in human hospitals.”
That was true, which is why he advocated living as far away from humans as they could get. This was neither the time nor the place for an ongoing discussion. He needed his mate like he required breathing.
“Back up. You couldn’t find her? I left her outside the back of the building with instructions not to move.” And she hadn’t been in great shape when he’d left.
“I don’t know if she took off on her own. My pack smelled another scent. Se
veral, actually, which wouldn’t be weird considering it’s a public place, so my best guys checked it out. They can actually tell how long it’s been since the scent was there. Your girl left the same time as the humans. My guess? The True Believers took her.”
Travis rubbed his forehead. “So rest up as long as you can. We have to go get her.”
Beaux swung his legs off the table. “Nope. Going now.”
“What good are you going to be to her like this?”
Travis had a valid question only Beaux was in no mood to hear it. He stood up on shaky legs. “The Moon gave her to me. She is mine to protect, mine to cherish, and mine to get back from those fuckers who took her.”
“You don’t look solid right now. I get it. I lost Lilliana once. Turned out she was with Cyrus. We didn’t have a treaty yet, and I thought the worst. Before I charged off half-assed we made a plan.”
“How’d it work out for you?” Cyrus voice boomed through the room.
Apparently, Lake’s brother was getting his energy back. His return to strength was good. They’d need him.
“So, it turned out you weren’t harming her. Your sister did turn on her werewolf side without permission, which was quite a shock for her.”
Beaux interrupted. He wasn’t going to let anyone criticize his mate.
“She can’t help her need any more than you can stop bossing your pack around. We are who we are; we have our abilities. Hers requires her to help. Whether she or the one she’s healing want her to or not.”
He waved away a steadying hand offered from Travis.
“I know where we have to go. I woke up knowing. It’ a long story, but I was given the directions. If I need to get there alone, then so be it. I’d like the help retrieving my mate if you’ll offer.”
“Shit. You’re really not going to wait a few hours?”
“The Moon gave me Lake, Travis. I’m not going to let her spend one more second in the hands of these lunatics.”
Not one second more.
****
“Sussex County isn’t small.” Travis shook his head in the manner he’d been doing for hours. “You’re sure we’re going in the right direction?”
“Yes.”
When he’d learned Lake had gone missing, an image had flooded his mind. A small house, red brick, black shutters. More, he knew where to find it, and, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Lake would be found there.
One last gift from Lily and the Alpha.
He was the protector of the Healer Prime, and he’d find a better to do his job. Or die trying.
Cyrus called out from the backseat. He’d been mostly quiet until now.
“Did something happen to you when you were, you know, kind of dead?”
“Dead? I was actually deceased?” That piece of information hadn’t been shared.
Travis shrugged. “Maybe. It’s kind of hard to know when the Healers are doing their thing. Do they bring us back from death or do they hold us here? I’m not really sure. I’m simply glad they can do it.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” Cyrus interrupted again.
“I know I didn’t.”
And he had no intention of going there with his future brother-in-law. The second he started to talk about actually meeting the original two, Cyrus would label him a kook.
“Turn left up there, Travis. Then it should be right down the road.”
The scent of tension—a crisp, wintery tug on his nose—filled the car. Travis’ pack wasn’t far behind them. Beaux hadn’t wanted to flood the street with traffic and give away their presence so they’d decided the Alphas would go in first.
Straight out of his vision, the red brick house stood at the end of the winding road. Totally innocuous. If he didn’t know better, he’d think some lovely family spent their lives inside those four walls.
He wondered if any of the neighbors knew who drove up and down their streets. Beaux shook his head. The humans wouldn’t believe it if he rang their doors and told them.
“What’s your plan now?” Cyrus unhooked his seatbelt, the clicking sound filling the car like it was a much bigger noise, a much more important sound. Small things became big when everything was on the line.
“I’m going through the front door.”
Travis raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to ring the bell?”
“I didn’t say that.” If the door was locked, he was going to break the fucker down. Ringing the doorbell implied asking for permission. Where Lake was involved, the entire would could simply get out of his way. Or die trying to interfere.
“And if your plan doesn’t work, cuz?” Travis scratched his head.
“Well then it’s a good thing you and Cyrus will be coming in through the backdoor.”
“Right. I think I’ve got it. This is one of those slash and burn operations where we’re basically going to kick ass and ask questions later.” Travis nodded. “I’m cool with that. How about you, Cyrus? Still able to do this sort of thing or is your pansy ass too comfortable in your New York penthouse to get your hands dirty?”
“Anything you can do, grease monkey, I can do.”
Beaux left them sniping at each other and headed for the front door. There were no lights visible in the house, which didn’t mean anything. The shades were drawn; the whole house might be ablaze, and he wouldn’t know from looking in the windows.
He took a deep breath to confirm and was glad to see that, despite his strange thought, the house hadn’t really caught on fire. They’d had quite enough of flames to last a lifetime. No scent of smoke caught his nose, and he strode toward the front door.
Once he got inside, he’d shift. His wolf would be faster, stronger, and less easily hurt. If need be, he’d drag his mate out by her sleeve using his teeth.
Lake would never have to face these people again. After tonight, they’d all be dead.
His mouth salivated. He could hardly wait to deliver the blows.
With a glance upward, he acknowledged the Moon. Though she had not lit the daytime sky yet, he knew she was always with him. He focused. No one could beat him—not when he felt completely in control.
His superiority in battle had always been a truth in his life.
Beaux tried the doorknob and smiled. The True Believers had locked their front door.
Good. Breaking it in would be so much fun.
With a howl from the wolf inside of him, he twisted the knob hard. No human devices would keep him from his Mate. The door handle snapped in half under his hand. Sometimes things were too easy.
Chapter Fourteen
Battle raged downstairs. Lake could hear it. Her ears rang from the growls and the human cries. Her body had become lead. Either that or somehow her back had been super-glued to the table beneath her. Those could be the only explanations for her complete inability to move.
She groaned. The fight taking place downstairs had to be about her. It didn’t seem likely the True Believers would be warring with random werewolves who didn’t know her. Not right then, anyway.
Gritting her teeth, she made herself count to ten before she hoisted her neck upward and waited for the room to stop spinning.
“Holy hell, I’m not really sitting up and this is misery.”
Talking aloud proved a problem, and, despite the fact her body protested the movement, she coughed violently, her chest tightening with each hack she made. When it finally subsided, her heart raced faster than she’d ever felt it before.
She rubbed at her face which was drenched in sweat.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Tears filled her eyes, and she let them fall without trying to stop them. Among werewolves, tears were a sign of weakness not to be tolerated, especially not when the wolf should be fighting instead of feeling sorry for herself.
Lake knew what her weakness meant. Aaron had been slowly killing her for weeks, and it had finally caught up with her. He’d kept her weak, and the last injection of whatever he’d given her had pushed her over the edge.
How had they gotten so many to come out and fight this battle for her? She hadn’t been raised to be humble and yet the sensation filled her, gratitude for all being done on her behalf making her eyes tear up again.
“Lake, did we raise you to be so weak in your tough moments? Chin up, little werewolf, you’re made of sterner stuff.”
“Mom?”
A figure she’d never expected to see again in this lifetime stepped out of the shadows draping the room in quiet solitude.
“Right.” Her mother approached her with the steady gait Lake had always associated with her. “I’m here.”
“How?” She laced her fingers in the other woman’s. “You died when I was so young.”
“I hated to leave. You’ll never know how much. I’m here now and I’m glad to be.”
Edna Fennell had been a striking beauty all the days of her life, and death had done nothing to alter her perfection. Tall, blonde, blue eyed, and slender in a muscular way speaking of strength, not meekness.
The pack said Lake resembled her, but besides the light hair, she didn’t see herself in her mom. There were touches of Cyrus in her, and Lake looked like her father’s mother. As a child, she’d loved the comparison. Her grandmother had been a strong Healer for their pack.
Telling a little girl she looked like her dead mother was something adults did. They seemed to think somehow it helped.
She shook her head. “Have I lost my mind? To explain why I’m seeing you?”
“I’m afraid you’re completely cognizant. It’s going to make this much harder.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Lake, my beautiful daughter who has suffered so much.” She wiped the hair off her forehead. “You’re so smart. Can’t you figure out what’s happening? You’re a Healer. When do people see their deceased loved ones?”
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