Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4)

by Amos, Richard

  “You really can’t tell me anything?”

  “I’m sorry. I would if I could. But your dad would have my balls for brunch if I did.”

  “Brunch?”

  He shrugged. “Your dad likes brunch.”

  I don’t give a shit if he likes corn on the cob while sitting in the bathtub! Yeah, my teeth were gonna fall out with all this tenseness!

  Waiting on the steps was a man, his black and gray hair slicked back, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. His pale face was still all square jaw and deadly-sharp cheekbones.

  Colin—one of my dad’s ten uber wolves, just like G was. He had a brutal reputation as a fierce warrior, one of the scariest werewolves out there.

  I was too busy staring to notice Gabriel open the door for me. Even when I slipped out of the car, it hadn’t registered I was outside the vehicle. It was all insignificant in the shadow of the prick watching me behind his shades.

  Colin.

  How many years had it been since I’d last seen him? Six? Yeah, I’d been eighteen.

  A chill washed over me as I carried on watching him.

  “You okay?” Gabriel asked from my left.

  His voice broke my staring, setting my eyes to blinking like crazy. “Huh?”

  “Are you okay, Aki?”

  I nodded, licking my dry lips. “Yeah, fine.”

  Seeing Colin again had…taken me by surprise. Standing with him was a female wolf I’d never seen before, and another man I didn’t know—both of them dressed up smartly in black suits. Humans. Pen pushers for my dad.

  “Akira,” Colin said, his voice incredibly deep. “Nice to see your face here again.” He turned to G. “Gabriel.”

  G had told me Colin had been proper salty about him losing out on the beta position when the old one had been killed in battle. As scary as Colin was, G could kick his arse around the world a thousand times over.

  “Colin,” I replied, nodding. There was a lead ball sitting in my chest.

  “You’re the welcoming committee, then?” G asked his fellow wolf.

  Colin grinned. “Sort of. Along with filling in for you.”

  Disrespectful wanker. The beta should kick his head in for that.

  Before G could respond, the frosted glass doors at the top of the steps opened inward. Colin stepped to the side, head bowed, the humans mimicking him on the opposite side.

  A woman in a red summer dress walked out, the swell of her pregnant belly clear as the glass of the building. She was glowing, a radiant almond sheen to her skin, her eyes sparkling blue. Her blonde hair was tied into a perfect plait that hung over her left shoulder.

  Sarah Murakami.

  I hadn’t been to the wedding, which had been lavish as fuck, and I’d never spoken to her, only seen her picture in the press.

  She was younger than my dad and six years older than me.

  “Welcome,” she greeted me warmly, extending a hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

  I hesitated on the stairs.

  “I’m Sarah.”

  “I know.” I took her hand, giving her the weakest of shakes.

  Inside that swollen belly was my brother or sister.

  She rested her hands on her stomach, smiling. “Your father thought it would be a good idea for us to finally meet. How are you?”

  “Fine. You?”

  “This little one is lying funny today, but other than that, I’m great.”

  Yeah, I bet. Must be fun being the new queen in town. “Cool.”

  “I thank the tenshi every day for all the blessings they bestow upon us.”

  “Praise them,” I replied in Japanese.

  “Praise them,” she echoed.

  After a few seconds, she said, “You’re about to be a big brother.”

  Condescending bitch. “Cool.”

  “If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you to see your father. We could have a chat on the way.”

  “Cool.” Apparently, my vocabulary had shrunk in less than five minutes.

  * * *

  We walked through the large glass hallways of my childhood, new art on the frosted walls, but nothing had really changed. It was still cold and impressive at the same time, not the kind of place I’d ever call an ideal home. I liked warmer stuff than this. But then look at all the crap memories, all of the pain this huge tower of pain had inflicted on me.

  I didn’t wanna think about them.

  Colin and G kept behind us, the pencil pushers gone. Fuck knows why they’d even bothered appearing. Colin had waved them off not long into the ‘tour.’

  No tour required!

  Colin. My spine prickled with his presence back there.

  Sarah was talking about her charitable work with organizations that helped disadvantaged children. I wasn’t really listening because it was all guff. She spoke in press bites, well trained by my dad’s PR team. I was too busy trying not to turn and run like hell in the opposite direction, putting as much distance between me and The Spire as possible.

  “Will you?” Sarah stopped, turning to face me.

  I froze. Ah, fuck! “Sorry?”

  “Will you come and visit the baby?”

  When had we moved on? “I, er, well…”

  She nodded, her warm smile fading, finally showing a little something more real than what she presented. “I understand that you and your dad are…in different places.”

  My lips were sealed.

  “But maybe…I don’t know. It’s really not my place to say anything.”

  “That’s right.”

  My answer took her by surprise. “I’m sorry. I…I didn’t... I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  Why was she being so nice? “You didn’t. I was just saying. Maybe I will come and see the baby.”

  It wasn’t a full out lie, more of a shaky truth. Coming back here again, sitting through my dad gushing at his new child—his pure-born child? Man, that was tough. To not meet the baby would be rejecting my sibling. But then how much would I have to do with it? I wouldn’t be as a big brother should be because I wouldn’t be in its life. I just couldn’t.

  The baby in Sarah’s belly was my replacement. My father’s second chance.

  It hurt.

  Colin’s presence stirred my wolf senses in the wrong ways. He was too close behind me, a place I didn’t want him to be.

  “Shall we carry on?” G asked, placing a hand on my arm.

  “Yes,” Sarah said, leading the way to a set of lifts at the end of the corridors, guarded by two women. “I’ve taken up too much of your time, Akira.”

  Colin still felt way too close. Thank the tenshi Gabriel was by my side. I couldn’t face this without him. Taking an onslaught of bad energy isn’t the easiest task in the world.

  I could hear Colin breathing, my skin remembering the…

  No.

  He didn’t get to be inside my head again.

  No.

  The lift doors slid open, ready to carry me up to Hell.

  Sometimes the bad shit was up, not down.

  * * *

  My dad wasn’t labeled a king, an emperor, or a president. He was the High Alpha, which was enough to tell everyone that he was all of those things and more, wrapped up into one.

  And here I was, in the huge glass Alpha Chamber with no art on the walls—the whole thing one big frosted ice cube. No view of the outside world, not a single hint of warmth.

  My dad sat in his huge seat of power—a black chair carved from the bones of the first wolves who’d come into the world in a forest that’d once stood in place of London. Woven by the tenshi to help fight the dark things in the trees, the wolves went on to win, to be great and powerful and dominant. To sit in the chair was to have the most uber backside on the planet. The top of the top.

  G was waiting outside, Sarah was gone after having kissed her husband and giving me a friendly goodbye.

  Sarah had been nice, which was a pain in the arse. Why not be the wicked stepmother? It’d be so much e
asier.

  Colin was also gone too, heading away from the main doors of the Alpha Chamber. He’d said fuck all the whole time. Like his pen pushers, I didn’t get why he’d tagged along.

  The past…

  The past could suck my dick.

  “Welcome, Akira,” my dad said.

  He was smartly dressed in a gray suit, his jet-black hair tied back into a ponytail without a hint of gray in it. Man, he didn’t age. I mean, werewolves had a slow aging process, but bloody hell! Perfect posture in his chair, regal vibe on point, his black eyes creepy, he was the full package of a powerful leader.

  Pissed me off we shared a similar hairstyle!

  “Come closer to me.”

  I obeyed, walking across the glass floor, so he was only feet away. The chair was raised on a dais, obviously. Couldn’t have him at the same level as everyone else.

  “Thank you for coming,” he said.

  “What do you want?”

  “Here we go. It hasn’t even been a minute, and you’re picking a fight.”

  “I can go if you want, Dad.”

  He leaned forward. “Do you have any idea how dangerous you are, Akira? I should not permit you to live the way you do, but I do so because I trust you.”

  What the fuck did that have to do with the price of eggs? “Great.”

  “Don’t be petulant, Son.”

  I hated it when he called me that.

  I simply shrugged, embracing the label.

  “Why do you insist on being difficult?”

  “I ain’t.”

  “You aren’t.”

  “Can you stop with the correcting bullshit? I speak proper, init?”

  He frowned, really giving me the death stare. “You really enjoy testing my patience.”

  “No, Dad, what I enjoy is being left the hell alone.”

  He sighed. “If I didn’t need you, I wouldn’t put myself through this.”

  “Yourself?” I laughed. “Poor old Hitoshi sitting in his castle, all upset because—”

  “Enough!” He stood, a tower of menace. “Maybe we should forget this.”

  “Fine with me, Popz. See ya later.”

  “Do not move from that spot.” His damn voice echoed in the room as if it were the aftermath of cracking thunder.

  I didn’t. He was a scary bastard.

  I’d never fight my dad. I mean, he was my dad. As much of a fuckhead as he was, I wasn’t about to throw down with him. Plus, he’d win hardcore. Man could snap an elephant in half.

  He spoke in Japanese, talking about the curse on his head to have a son like me.

  I replied, saying the same thing but replacing son with father.

  His scowl was as sharp as his wolf fangs. “This is grievous disrespect.”

  A part of me, some stupid part way down in the pits I tried to ignore, didn’t want to hear him say that. All the attitude, all the hate, and still a kernel of pain flared up because I wanted daddy to love me.

  Shit. Was that it? Is that what it meant? Or was it a natural for a son to believe in fatherly love?

  What the fuck?

  No.

  Not this.

  Every time it came up to poke me, I shot it down. I didn’t want his love, didn’t care that he thought I was disrespectful.

  “Summoning me to this dump is disrespectful,” I said.

  “I am High Alpha.”

  “And?”

  I really was walking on thin ice. Anyone else would’ve had their heads removed from their necks.

  He was right. I was dangerous, my katanas deadly as fuck. What about it?

  His face softened to something akin to sadness. In that moment, he looked older, tired, defeated.

  He never looked defeated.

  “This isn’t the time for fighting, Son. There is important business to discuss. The more time we waste here, the further we are from the crux.”

  “Fine. Then talk. What do you want?”

  He took a moment, sitting back down in his chair. “There has been another werewolf murder.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “The press has no idea yet.”

  “Impressive.”

  “What is?”

  “Hiding it from them.”

  He nodded. “I’m sure the story will leak soon. Anyway, the nature of this murder is sensitive. Again, there are signs of ritualistic behavior, but it is the location of the crime scene that is the problem.”

  “What’s the problem?”

  “The victim was found on an elven caravan. It is still there.”

  “Oh, fuck.”

  “Now, you see the issue we face.”

  Because of the shaky elf/werewolf history, there were certain places a wolf or elf would not go. You’d never see elves in Lunar, just like you’d never see a wolf hanging around the elven caravans. Protected territories. Yeah, Papa could be brutal and have his people barge in there to take the body of this werewolf, but that’d flare things up.

  Tricky.

  “Our human ambassador is trying to broker a deal,” he added, “to have the body released to us, but the elves want answers as to why a wolf was down there.”

  “Could have been planted there.”

  “Yes. That is why I’m enlisting your help.”

  “No.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I said no. I don’t wanna be part of this.”

  He tapped his fingers on his thigh. “I see. Listen to me, Son. No matter how much you push against your wolf nature, you—”

  “Wait. Who said anything about me pushing against that?”

  “I—”

  “No.” Not many people could interrupt the High Alpha and not walk away with a broken arm. I wasn’t out of the woods yet myself. “That’s bullshit.”

  “Allow me to finish, Akira.” His voice was loaded with threat but calm.

  “Then finish.”

  He took a moment, watching me. I tried my best not to look away, to hold that stare, but he won. I lowered my eyes to the floor in some fucked up submission. He was who he was, and had the power to make people weak, no matter how much they hated him.

  “I apologize for my statement, Akira. It was an assumption on my part, and I did not mean to hurt your feelings.”

  I kept my mouth shut.

  “You have a good relationship with the elves. Mama Rita is your friend, and I know you go to the elven caravans to trade for baking ingredients.”

  “That’s’ right.”

  “There would be no complications should you go into the tunnels to investigate the body of our fallen wolf.”

  “I’m not a detective.”

  “Your presence will put them at ease. They do not want that body there as much we don’t. All of us want closure, but there are conditions that must be met. Our human envoy isn’t enough. We need something more. We need you.”

  “I don’t see—”

  “You are neutral in many ways. Not quite wolf, not human, and you have helped many of the elves with your hunting skills. You are perfect to resolve this.”

  Neutral felt like a damn insult. “No.”

  “Akira, I’m afraid I’m not giving you a choice.”

  My mouth was suddenly dry. “Oh, you’re pulling the ultimate power card?”

  “Yes, I am. As is my prerogative. Also, Son, you are still a part of this pack.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. You are. No matter what, no matter how things are between us, you are my son, and you are pack.”

  “First time you’ve ever said that.”

  He nodded. “It is true.”

  “And I don’t want it. I’m not pack. I refuse to be pack. Why should I be after all the shit I’ve put up with? Huh?” Man, the anger was bubbling. “Who the fuck do you think you are to say that crap to me? I’ve never been welcomed into the pack—by you or anyone else.”

  A memory flared up, back to when I was fourteen, in a school bathroom, drenched and bleeding from the mouth, curled up on t
he cold tiles, bruised with broken bones, sobbing my heart out.

  “Growing up as a—”

  “Spare me, Dad. I don’t care what you have to say. There’re loads you could’ve done, but you didn’t. You let stuff go on, and now you wanna act like the protective father by having your beta babysit me? Fuck off.” I turned to leave, and the air rushed behind me.

  My dad grabbed me by the biceps, spinning me to face him with awesome strength.

  “You will do as you are commanded, Akira Murakami!” he boomed in Japanese. “I am your king and alpha, and you will obey me.” He shoved me hard, sending me onto my arse.

  I crawled backward, cowering as his eyes flared like two golden suns.

  Ah, shit.

  He was tall and foreboding, and I swear I saw shadows gathering around him. Every hair on my body stood on end, grisly cold shudders running up and down my spine, Bob and Rose whimpering inside me.

  I held back a whimper of my own, feeling like a puppy dog being bollocked when I should be drawing my katanas to cut off his head.

  No.

  Not my dad.

  I couldn’t kill my dad.

  “You will set out today and meet with the elves. You are our ambassador now and will arrange for that wolf to be brought home. If you refuse, I will have no choice but to use force against the elves, close down their tunnels. If you want to wash your hands of this, Akira, fine. I am a reasonable man. Let’s change the course of this. Two options for you, my son.” He came closer. I crawled back some more, not daring to get up. “Option one: obey your father and ruler, work in the interests of peace and help with an investigation into who is committing these crimes against us. You can help cut off the head of the beast, so to speak. Okay? Understand that? Good. Option two: refuse me and start a war. Because that’s what will happen if I am forced to take action on the caravans. Then, when the elves strike back, you will be on the side of the wolf, fighting in my army to destroy any rebellion. There will be no choice in that, Akira.” He rolled his shoulders. “I am a patient man when it comes to you, but sometimes you test me too much. Do you want me to tarnish your reputation as a hunter? Because I could burn it all down. I wouldn’t hesitate. Not at all. Or would you like to behave?”

  That fucking vile piece of shit! There he was! There was fucking Papa, through and through.