Under the Moonlight

by Codi Gary

  “Hey. Glad to see you looking well and vertical.”

  “What can I say? Sometimes you just got to get out of the house and party.”

  He nodded to her empty hands. “Doesn’t look like you’re hitting it too hard.”

  “Can’t mix alcohol with my pain meds.”

  “What are you doing here, then?”

  Greer waved toward Jill. “Just being a good wing woman. Making sure Jill doesn’t get herself in trouble.”

  He didn’t even glance Jill’s way, his gaze was thoroughly focused on her and the intensity of it made her knees weak.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Looking for a couple old friends.” His hand lightly touched her arm. “By the way, I was sorry to hear about yours. Are you doing okay?”

  Greer’s stomach knotted up as she thought about vivacious Kelsey, her life snuffed out by a wild animal. It made Greer think about her encounter with the wolf and she couldn’t believe how careless she’d been. Taking for granted the fact that just because she hadn’t ever seen any large predators didn’t mean they were around, lurking right out of sight.

  “Thank you. We were more like acquaintances, but she was great. She didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

  “Nobody does,” he murmured.

  Desperate to get off the subject she smiled and reached into her purse. “Buy you a beer?”

  “Nah, I’m good.”

  She released her wallet and hiked the strap of her purse higher onto her shoulder. “Right, you said you were meeting friends. What do they look like? Maybe I’ve seen them.”

  “One’s a woman about five foot nine with red hair and hazel eyes and the other is a tall Native American man with a tribal tattoo on his left bicep.”

  Greer cocked her head, amused. “That’s a pretty clinical description. Funny, I don’t know about the tat, but Jill’s talking to a guy that sounds like your friend.”

  Xander whipped away from her, turning his head frantically. “Where?”

  “Well, they were right…” she trailed off when she realized that they had disappeared. “Crap, I lost her. Damn it, this is so typical. I told her not to run off without telling me…hey, where are you going?”

  Xander was pushing his way toward the front of Howlers roughly, knocking people aside. Greer followed behind, apologizing to the disgruntled patrons.

  When she finally caught him at the entrance, she cried, “Xander, what is going on?”

  He didn’t answer as he launched out the door. Once she was outside, she stepped through a cloud of cigarette smoke before she saw him rounding the corner. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to a stop, but he just dragged her along.

  “You’re scaring me! I thought the guy was your friend?”

  “I lied, okay? He’s a bad man and if we don’t find Jill, there’s going to be another dead body in the morning.”

  “What?” she choked.

  He looked like he was going to say more, but a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the night.

  Greer’s whole body went cold as ice. It was Jill.

  10

  Xander rushed toward the sound, wishing he could shield Greer from what she was about to see. He didn’t have time to fight her. Not if he wanted to save her friend.

  Besides, she was safer with him than standing out front or going back inside. Dakota could easily be waiting to get her alone just to punish him.

  To his surprise, they came around the back to find Jill stumbling toward them. Her jacket hung off one arm and her hand gripped her exposed shoulder. The golden light over the back door illuminated her pale complexion, and wide, shocked eyes.

  “Jill,” Greer cried, racing passed him to her friend. She put her arm around Jill’s waist, rattling off questions rapidly. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I…” Jill winced, as though it hurt to talk. Xander smelled the blood before he saw it oozing beneath her hand, trailing down her collarbone. The light blue halter top she wore had dark trails down her chest where the blood ran.

  He tipped his head up and took a deep breath. Along with the bitter, metallic scent of blood was the familiar musk of Pax.

  “Jill, the man that attacked you…did he change?” he asked.

  Jill turned his way, her expression completely befuddled. “Changed? Into what?”

  “An animal?” he said.

  Greer gasped, while Jill shook her head. “I…I didn’t see. He was behind me and then, I felt this excruciating pain. It was awful.”

  “Do you know where he went?” he insisted.

  Jill’s voice was clogged with fear, it was permeating the air around her. “No, I screamed and he took off into the dark.”

  “He bit you?” Xander asked impatiently.

  “Bit her?” Greer said shrilly.

  Jill moved her hand, showing the gushing bite from Pax’s teeth.

  “Oh, my God, Jill!”

  Xander watched Greer embrace Jill tenderly. Pax hadn’t killed Jill like the others. Instead, he’d bitten her. Changed her into a shifter.

  “Greer, you need to step back,” Xander said, calmly.

  Greer pulled back, shooting him a look of bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”

  How in the hell could he explain to her that stressing Jill out could only make her transition faster without revealing who and what he was?

  “She’s been bitten by a were-cougar. We need to keep her calm so she doesn’t shift.”

  Dazed Jill was replaced by a woman with wide frightened eyes. “Shift? I’m going to shift?”

  “Sooner rather than later. I need to get you somewhere safe so no one sees you. It can be a very painful process, and not all humans are shifter friendly.”

  “How do you know he was a were-cougar?”

  Xander faced Greer, seeing the suspicion in her eyes.

  “I’ll explain everything once we get her to safety.”

  Xander was surprised she didn’t argue more. Greer kept her arm around Jill’s waist and he followed behind them, listening intently to their surroundings. He needed to be ready in case Pax or Dakota jumped him.

  Not that he thought they had stuck around. Whatever their little game was, they obviously wanted Jill alive and him twisting.

  But he had no connection to Jill, except through Greer, so why was she targeted?

  “My truck is this way,” he said.

  Xander moved ahead, leading the way. He helped Jill into the back and when Greer would have joined her, Xander stalled her with a hand on her shoulder. “You’re up front.”

  “The hell I am, she’s my friend.”

  “And if she shifts, I want you away from the action.”

  Greer’s mouth turned mulish. Xander was sure she would force him to pick her up and lift her into the front.

  Instead, she huffed. “Fine, but only because you owe me an explanation.”

  He closed the door on Jill and opened the passenger side for Greer, who didn’t even look at him as she climbed inside.

  When he finally got into the cab and turned the key, Jill started hyperventilating. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”

  “What’s wrong?” Greer asked.

  “I need a mirror!” Jill cried.

  Greer flipped down her visor and Jill wiped at her bloody neck.

  “The bite! The bite’s gone.”

  Greer’s horrified gaze flicked back and forth between him and Jill. “How is that possible?”

  Xander put the truck into gear grimly. If she was already healing, then it was just a matter of time before she turned.

  “Because she’s not human anymore.”

  Xander flipped off the dome light. He peeled out of the parking lot, heading back to his place.

  “Tell me what’s going on Xander!” Greer shouted.

  “Shifters, Greer. Paranormal creatures. That is what is going on. I’ve been tracking two of them for five years, and I followed them here. The man, Pax Steel, he is the one who bit y
our friend.”

  “Why did he bite her?”

  “I don’t know but it’s nothing good.” He hesitated, afraid to tell her everything. “They killed Kelsey and Sam.”

  Greer’s voice was barely over a whisper. “Sam?”

  “Yeah, I found him this morning on my way into town. The police haven’t discovered his body yet.”

  There was a pause, and he glanced over at her. In the darkness of the cab, it was hard to tell, but he had a feeling she was staring at him in horror. “How did you find him? Were you hiking again or something?”

  Xander knew he was burying himself, and putting a whole lot of trust in her, but he couldn’t lie. She needed to know everything. “I smelled him.”

  “You…smelled him?”

  “Jill, you doing okay back there?” Xander asked as he sped back up the mountain road.

  “No, I’m far from freaking alright! I…I think I’m going to pass out.”

  The cab went quiet and he glanced over his shoulder quickly to make sure she was okay. She was prone across the seat. “Thank God.”

  “Is she going to be alright?”

  “I think so. It’s always an adjustment, especially if it’s not a consensual bite.”

  Greer scoffed. “People actually consent to being bitten and turned?”

  He turned briefly, and the light of the moon caught the incredulous expression on her face. His guts tied up in knots. “When two people choose to be mated, yes. If they aren’t both shifters already.”

  He saw her swallow and he would have given a pound of flesh to know what she was thinking.

  “You said you smelled Sam. Was he close to the road or something?”

  Xander knew where this was leading and there was nothing for it. He had to tell her. “No he was about a half a mile into the woods. I was driving with the windows down and I smelled his dead body.”

  “How…Oh my God. What are you?”

  The terror in her voice stabbed him in the chest.

  “I’m a werewolf.”

  11

  Twenty minutes later, Greer paced Xander’s living room, trying to put everything together. Jill was resting in the spare bedroom and Xander was in the kitchen making coffee.

  How in the hell was she supposed to wrap her brain around all this? Jill had been bitten by a shifter and Xander, the guy she’d thought she could trust, was one too. Her ex was dead, Kelsey was dead, and she still had a buttload of questions Xander needed to answer.

  Finally, she stopped running a trench in his floor and leaned against the kitchen counter. “So, are you like a shifter bounty hunter or something?”

  Xander didn’t even look up from his task as he answered. “No, I’ not a bounty hunter or a cop.”

  “Okay. Then why were you following them here?”

  He stopped pouring the coffee to look up at her, meeting her gaze. “They killed my family. Came through and slaughtered them while they were sleeping.”

  “Oh, Xander, I am so sorry.” The way he said it, flat and emotionless, made her want to reach out and hold him.

  He ignored her condolences, which didn’t surprise her. When she’d lost her parents in a car accident three years ago, she never wanted to talk about them. It was too painful.

  “That’s why I was in the woods when you fell. I was following their scent and I saw Pax watching you. I ran after him, planning on ending it there, but when you collapsed, I couldn’t leave you.”

  She had no idea why it had taken her so long, but the pieces finally clicked. “You were the wolf.”

  “Yes.”

  “I just…” She ran her fingers through her hair with a rough chuckle. “I feel like my head is going to explode.”

  “You knew shifters were real, right?”

  He sounded almost impatient with her and it rankled her. “Well, yeah, but—

  “Then you shouldn’t be so surprised.”

  The muscle in her jaw tightened. “Okay, fine, but all of the news stories paint you as warm and fuzzy toward humans. Why are they attacking us?”

  “Most shifters are pro-human, but there is the occasional issue with shifters killing other shifters and even humans. There’s bad guys in the paranormal world, too, just like with humans.”

  “Why are they doing this then? Why Kelsey, Sam, and Jill?”

  Xander finished pouring the coffee and handed her a cup. “To punish me. After they murdered my family, I tracked them down one by one, making sure they never hurt anyone else. There were originally seven. Now there’s two.”

  “You mean you’ve been killing them.” Her tone was whisper soft.

  He hesitated. “Yes.”

  Greer took a deep, shaky breath. He’d hunted people, correction, shifters down and murdered them. He was a regular Beatrix Kiddo.

  God, I have feelings for a revenge killer.

  She couldn’t dwell on what that said about her character. She needed to know everything; to sort it out in her head. “Still doesn’t explain why they killed Kelsey, and Sam. You had no connection to them.”

  “It’s you. Somehow they must have seen me with you and thought that I might…feel something for you.”

  Greer’s heart slammed in her chest, beating a tattoo against her breast bone. “Do you?”

  “Does it matter? You think I’m a monster, right?”

  Did she? She was scared shitless, no doubt about it, but not of Xander. That voice in her head that had told her to trust him before was still there, still convinced he was a good guy. A good guy vigilante who just happened to be a werewolf.

  She set her mug down on the counter, and then stepped closer to him. “I don’t think you’re a monster. I…I can’t explain it, but I care for you too. I believe you would never hurt me.”

  Tears spilled over from her eyes, trailing down her cheeks as the reality of what was happening crashed over her. Kelsey was dead. Sam, too, and now, Jill’s life was completely turned upside down.

  And two dangerous supernatural creatures had her in their sights.

  Without asking her permission, Xander reached out and gently hauled her into his arms. He held her against his chest, rocking her back and forth. His lips brushed the top of her hair and she leaned into him, squeezing his waist tight as she cried out. Sobs wracked her body as she completely lost it, breaking down like a freaking basket case because she could.

  Because Xander, a man she barely knew, was letting her.

  He rubbed his hand over her back, murmuring low and soothingly. “It’s okay. I’m not going to let anything else happen to you or Jill. You have my word.”

  Finally, she got a hold of herself. She smoothed her hand over the wet spots on his chest where her tears had soaked his t-shirt. “Sorry for losing my shit all over you.”

  His hand came up and he trailed his fingers down her cheek. She tipped her head back to meet his gaze, his electric blue eyes boring into hers.

  “You needed it and I’ll be here any time you do. Anything to get you in my arms.”

  It was a line. Under normal circumstances, she would have called him out for being cheesy, but she just smiled as she laid her cheek against his chest. The steady thump of his heart kicked up and she wondered if it was because of her proximity. Did she really get to him the way he did her?

  “Is it crazy that I just want to stay here with you and push all the bad stuff away?” she asked.

  “Not at all. If it was up to me, I’d keep you here with me forever.”

  To her surprise, the word forever coming from Xander didn’t send her into a blind panic.

  Still, she’d had her melt down and now it was time to pull up her big girl panties and deal with the crazy that had come barreling into her life.

  She leaned back slowly, but he didn’t release her. “As much as I’d love that, we have some serious problems and I need to know where we go from here. Do we call the police?”

  Xander’s grip on her tightened. “No. No cops, of any kind.”

  “But isn’t
there a branch of paranormal law enforcement that can catch them.”

  “I don’t want them caught.”

  Greer pulled away as his meaning sunk in. “You want to kill them too.”

  “They deserve it, Greer. You don’t know what all they did.”

  Her palm cupped his cheek. “Tell me. Make me understand.”

  Xander’s expression clouded and he gingerly took her hand, moving it away from his skin.

  “I can’t.”

  12

  Xander stood outside his bedroom, listening to Greer’s breathing as she slept. After he’d denied her the details of his family’s murder, she’d pulled away, wanting to get some rest. He’d let her take his bed, and offered to bunk on the couch. He couldn’t blame her for being pissed at him. Although she’d only known him a few days, he’d done nothing but lie to her. Now, when she begged him to open up and let her in, to make her understand his world and his reasoning, he’d told her no.

  He wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted to see him again.

  But it was too late for that. She needed him now and he had to protect her. To keep her safe. Once Pax and Dakota were dead, he would do whatever she needed, even if that meant walking away from her.

  Until that moment though, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.

  He went downstairs and dialed Clyde. He needed a safe place for Jill while she adjusted to being a shifter, someone who could show her how to live.

  “Hey, there’s my boy! How’s the weather up there?”

  “Storms a brewing, actually.”

  “Uh oh, what kind of trouble have you gotten into now?”

  That was just one of the things that Xander loved about Clyde. He didn’t pussy foot around a topic, he jumped right into it.

  “Pax and Dakota have started targeting the locals to get to me. I need to finish this now, before more people die, but there’s a…complication.”

  “Are we talking about a girl?” Xander could hear the smile in Clyde’s voice. Clyde was as alpha as they come, but his wife wasn’t the only one who liked matchmaking.

  “Her name is Greer, but we’re actually talking about the girl’s friend, Jill. Pax bit her.”