Kissed By Moonlight

by Adrianne Brooks

Leo Valentine didn’t like surprises. He also didn’t like humans. By definition, that meant that he shouldn’t have liked Phaedra Conners. The problem was that just like everyone else, he’d been keeping up with her antics ever since she’d earned the moniker “Fiery Phaedra.” He’d watched the news each time a grinning anchor told Briarcliff that Conners had been arrested yet again during some random human interest piece. He’d read her dramatically depressing obituaries in the Oracle, and had enjoyed the Bigfoot scandal as much as everyone else within the city limits.

  Whether she knew it or not, Phaedra Conners had slowly become the quirky poster child of Briarcliff. Her name was in the stories they told newcomers and in the conversations held around dinner tables. No one in their right mind would hire her, but they liked to brag about the fact that she’d turned in an application. That she was now the mate of Gabriel Evans seemed right somehow. Two opposites made whole.

  Usually he liked to stay out of the business of other Packs. If it had been anyone else he would have refused to send aid. He certainly wouldn’t have come himself. But it was Fiery Phaedra who had called him and he’d been fond of Gabriel for more years than he could count.

  It was why he found himself wandering through Briarcliff National Park, four of his strongest wolves stalking beside him as they sniffed the air. Following the day old scent of Gabriel Evans as if it were the whispered promises of a woman and they were nothing but love struck men.

  He could have waited for the human, for Phaedra, but had decided against it. It was one thing to like her; it was something else entirely to lead her on a hunt. Gabriel was still one of their own and Leo couldn’t afford to endanger their mission because of the clumsy fumbling of a human woman. He and his men could find and save Gabriel much more quickly by themselves. Leo was confident that when he finally met Phaedra face to face, he would do so with her Mate at his side.

  They were close.

  He could feel it in his bones.

  That secret knowledge among carnivores that told them when prey was close. When it was trapped and screaming. A few more feet and he could even hear Gabriel. Hear his heartbeat, hear his breath, hear his power struggling against the leash he’d bound it with when he’d crossed out of the Sithin.

  Leo had understood, but had refused to do the same. Instead, he’d cultivated his gifts as a Hound. Perfected them. Their old masters would be back one day, and when that time came he and the rest of the Hell Hounds would have to be ready to fight. Granted, it had been eons since he and the other Alphas had escaped from the Sithin. At first Leo had been vigilant, but somewhere along the line that vigilance had worn off. These days, he doubted he’d ever see another Sidhe again.

  From the corner of his eye he thought he saw something move beyond the trees. One of the wolves, Jeffery, froze misstep. His hackles raised, his lip curled back from gleaming teeth, and his eyes burned bright and yellow.

  Slowly, Leo knelt beside his friend. Placing a placating hand on the back of the Were’s neck. His touch ordered silence, calm, and the Were struggled to obey. The other three were a little slower on the uptake. Which was to be expected, since half of his Pack had never hunted in the wild before. The world wasn’t like it used to be. There were so few places for a Pack to run these days, that most Weres were more used to living in the city than roughing it in woods. They had the instinct but not the experience, and it made the ones who had grown up fighting on rooftops and alleyways vulnerable to the danger that could lurk beyond the tree line.

  What surprised him wasn’t that they hadn’t noticed the Specter, but that the Specter didn’t rip them limb from limb as a result. Instead, it stood directly in their path, watching the three Weres curiously until they noticed it and came to a startled standstill. There was something odd about this particular Specter. There was life in its eyes, femininity in the way it stalked towards them, careful and quick.

  “Find the wolf,” it whispered and the three Weres closest to it convulsed like dying things. “Find the wolf,” it repeated gleefully, voice growing louder with each repetition and the black caves of its eyes shimmering like flames. “Find the wolf.”

  There was only one lost wolf that Leo could think of.

  “Gabriel?” He felt like an idiot the second the question left his mouth. You didn’t talk to Specters. You killed them before they could kill you. But Leo couldn’t place his finger on what made this one different from all the rest. He’d tried scenting the creature, but it smelled the same as every other Specter he’d ever come across. Like ice and something rotting.

  To his surprise, it nodded in response.

  “Gabriel.” Its voice went soft, almost…was that longing? “Find Gabriel.”

  “I’ll be damned,” he breathed in wonder. “It talks.” He’d never met a talking Specter. Even when he’d Hunted with the Sidhe, the specters in their party had never spoken. It made the creature less alien to know that it understood the human tongue.

  “Jeffery,” he said after a moment, “take point with our little friend here. Hernandez, Tony, and Quentin? Watch our rear.”

  Jeffery wasn’t the only one who sent him a look of doubt before following his instructions. Leo knew what he was planning was insane, but figured that he could handle the Specter if the creature suddenly turned on him and his men. In the meantime, they now had some much needed help to bring back Gabriel.

  Not that he and his wolves couldn’t infiltrate a high security government facility, he thought a few minutes later when they stepped into the clearing and saw the building in question.

  But hey, a helping hand was always nice.

  Leo wasn’t big on planning. With Weres, creatures that ran on pure instinct, planning was usually a waste of time. Their minds knew when to strengthen the ranks where they were weak and when to retreat when things looked bad.

  Taking down an enemy as a unit was second nature. So he didn’t bother holding his men, or the Specter, back when they saw the building. He just sent them forward to enact their damage and hoped for the best. If nothing else, his second in command had clear instructions to contact their allies from the other packs and come for him if he didn’t return. He shouldn’t have come on this hunt in the first place, but found that he had grown tired of being stuck in a board room.

  Ripping things apart was much more fun than talking business.