Moonlight Hunters: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 2)

by K. R. Alexander

  “All right?” Confused as well as angry at him for taking such liberties under the circumstances of last night, I stepped back while the furred wolves also milled around me. “No, I’m not all right. And you’re on your way to making it worse so back off.”

  Zar opened his mouth, but couldn’t seem to think, distressed. “Cassia, what—?”

  “Been looking for you all day.” While Zar appeared mortified by my reaction, Kage sounded angry. “Didn’t know what had happened. Jason and Andrew are back at the farm. Jed and Isaac had never changed so they’ve been trying to track you. Finally got going up here and we followed them.”

  “Why? I just went for a walk.”

  “Why?” Kage stared at me like I was stupid.

  “We’re supposed to protect you, Cassia.” Did Zar have tears in his eyes? “The four of us. When we couldn’t find you, and no one knew at the farm that you’d gone off anywhere—”

  “First of all, nothing’s trying to hurt me out here besides you all. Second, if you really are so concerned for my wellbeing, you damn well should have thought of that last night.” I brushed past.

  “What are you talking about?” Zar rushed to move with me, not touching, though I’d thought for a second he was reaching for my arm.

  Smart choice.

  I stopped and faced him. “Is that supposed to be a joke? Or do you just not remember what happened last night?”

  Zar stepped back, glancing at Kage, scared, uncertain. “We didn’t … hurt you…?”

  “You don’t think so?” I didn’t mean to shout at him, but I was shaking, muscles tight with my own anger. “That was the most awful thing I’ve ever seen! And now you think there’s no problem and I just wouldn’t—?”

  “That was in fur,” Kage cut in. “It’s not the same. Can’t act like fur’s the same.”

  I blinked at him, breathing hard, digging my nails into my palms. That was Moon. This is Sun. Right now. But I couldn’t forget that fast.

  “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?” I asked. “That’s how you feel?” I looked down at Isaac, who wagged his tail a little when I met his eyes. “No hard feelings? That’s it?” I turned to Zar. “Fine. Go back to living like that once you’re home and I’m home. Right now, you have a different kind of ‘stranger’ in the pack. One who spends all her time in skin. I don’t buy that ‘we were in fur and it’s different’ bullshit because I’ve seen how you are. You’re perfectly clear-headed in fur. If you have certain instincts that are powerful and harder to control, that doesn’t mean you can’t control them. Just like when you’re in skin and you have an instinct to grab a chicken”—I looked again at Isaac—“or gulp down your food. You can control it. We have a job to do tonight. And we’re going to be together all day tomorrow at the very least. I hope for your sakes you can make an effort to show off your good sides. I don’t care what form you’re in.”

  I stepped up into Zar’s face, staring into his wide brown eyes. “And if I ever see you do anything like that again, to any of them, you better start running. I might not be able to ‘control myself.' Do you understand me?”

  Zar’s pupils were dots, breaths so fast and shallow he looked like an overheated rabbit. He nodded.

  I walked on down the trail, moving fast.

  The four wolves followed in silence.

  Chapter 39

  I was almost to the beehives when I saw Jason and Andrew coming out from the main house into the yard. They approached, then stopped by the two long tables. Seven places were set, the rest empty, and I realized our hosts must have eaten lunch but my pack had not. They really had been distressed looking for me. This made me feel bad about Zar and the others—but not exactly heartbroken.

  Andrew was saying something to Jason as I passed the flower arch, heading toward the house. He seemed to be keeping Jason there, keeping them both back. Andrew might actually have the human-sense to know I was upset: that I didn’t get the “What happens in fur stays in fur” philosophy. Telling Jason to leave me alone.

  Jason broke away from him anyway, coming to meet me.

  “Cassia?”

  I stopped to glare at him.

  But he surprised me.

  “I’m sorry,” Jason said.

  The minute he did, I realized that was all I’d needed. From all of them. And they hadn’t offered it—only Zar’s bewilderment and Kage’s defensiveness.

  I felt a lump in my throat and didn’t answer.

  “We weren’t thinking, Cassia. I’m sorry you were involved. I’ve seen fights before when I’m in skin and couldn’t do anything and … it’s not fun. But I’m glad you were there. Glad you stopped us.” He stepped forward tentatively and hugged me.

  His arms were gentle, though his chest was like a brick wall.

  I returned the embrace, shutting my eyes, smelling forests and sweat on him.

  “Are you?” I asked quietly when I let go and looked at him again.

  “Of course I am. We all are.” He seemed surprised that I had to ask. “Kage is always in a fight, and even he was glad you stopped us. That shouldn’t have been out of hand the way it was. We can get trapped in the heat of the moment and need a silver to break things up. Our pack right now … it’s unnatural. So we’re grateful you’re here. You were Moon’s voice for us last night.”

  I looked into his dark eyes, sad and regretful, and remembered what Andrew had told me about him deliberately picking fights. Yet I had no doubt that Jason meant what he said right now.

  At last, I took a breath and said, “Thank you for saying that. Would you do something for me? Come talk to Martha? If she’s in the mood. She’s been kind enough to try helping me understand you all a bit better with an astrological perspective. I thought it might help us work together.”

  Jason nodded. “Of course, but you might not need us. Andrew and I were just talking with her.” He smiled weakly. “She could probably tell you anything you want to know. She called Andrew an airhead.”

  “Did she?” I smiled too. “I bet she meant it in a different way.”

  “It was still pretty funny. We knew he was all air, but she says there’s a fire disparity in our pack now that’s being fanned by air and … well…”

  “That you need to cut it out?”

  Jason bit his lip and looked down.

  “You’re air as well?”

  “Aquarius Sun, Aries Moon.”

  “I’m an Aries moon sign also. What’s your sidekick?”

  “Andrew?” Jason glanced around to him at the tables in the yard. “He’s Gemini with Aquarius Moon. He’s always liked to say he has a Mercury imbalance.”

  I couldn’t help smiling more. “I suppose I should have been able to guess as much. And I’m sure he loves his Mercury imbalance. You’ve known him since you were pups, haven’t you? Since he moved from the Aspens?”

  “Of course—I grew up with him. My parents raised him.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “You and Andrew are adopted brothers?”

  Jason nodded. “It’s horrible sharing a room with him when you’re running late.”

  “Running…? Because you can’t find your stuff? You had to share a room with Andrew growing up?”

  “About twelve years. We’re almost exactly the same age.”

  “You poor wolf. And you’re still on speaking terms with him.”

  Jason chuckled. “Andrew’s all right. I needed a brother. Andrew needed a family. My parents needed another pup to love. Moon always knows.”

  I also looked around at Andrew. So much about the two of them suddenly made sense. There’d even been a comment about “your brother” from Kage one time that now became clear. Yet my own fascination to learn this almost made me flinch. Here I was. Still at it. Not detaching, but following my own curiosity.

  “Want to talk to Martha with me?” I asked anyway.

  Jason led the way to get the door, but Andrew, who’d watched all the time from back at the tables, rushed to it first.

  Holdi
ng it open, he inclined his head. “Welcome back, Cassiopeia. I’m terribly sorry for what happened last night and grateful for your presence in—”

  Jason was rolling his eyes.

  “Shut up, Andrew.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Martha actually looked up and smiled at me for the first time when we joined her.

  “Have a good walk, yearling?” she asked. “I told them you needed to fix weights and measures in your own head and you’d be back directly.”

  “I did have a wonderful walk until some wolves crashed my moment. May I ask? How is your English so perfect?”

  “I’ve lived all over the world, including America for many years during and after the war. I was just a pup then. I grew up with English.”

  “World War Two?”

  “Of course.” She chuckled. “Not the first one. How old do you think I am?”

  “Sorry.” I felt my cheeks heat. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just interested in history. I wish I had a much longer trip here.”

  “Come back any time you like, yearling.”

  “Thank you. I hear you’ve been talking with my companions?”

  “The airheads?”

  Jason laughed a little. I also grinned at the visual.

  “The three of you represent a complete triad of air signs in your Suns,” Martha went on. “Sun blessed you with your own understanding, your own connection. You three can work together for powerful effect with unique thinking and strong communication. Or you can scatter like dandelion fluff and find nothing but confusion and storms. Personally, I find that bringing air together is the most vigorous of all the elements working in tune. Too much fire; explosion. Too much earth; stagnation. Too much water; drown in our own emotional depths. Too much air…” She held up both veined, boney hands to the glass, the mountains and fields beyond, the wide world and shocking blue sky. “Can you have too much air?”

  “Never.” Andrew smirked.

  “Air can make a tornado,” I said quietly. “And air meeting fire or water can be disastrous.”

  “Wise pup,” Martha murmured. “So what do you need?”

  “Balance.” I smiled in that moment because I got it. I was the student again, having a breakthrough. And that, more than anything in teaching or learning, maybe in life, was my favorite moment. “My pack” needed balance and leadership. Yes, on the one hand I was the scales. On the other, though, I had my fire moon sign, my guardians working together.

  My mother used to say astrology did not “make” anyone anything. Our stars only lent us gifts, for good or ill, to harness or to ignore. Since she’d been gone, I realized now that I’d been doing too much ignoring for my adult life. Maybe it was time to embrace the scales and harness the ram.

  Martha gave me a knowing smile and I knew I didn’t need to say any more.

  “Still one of your number I haven’t seen,” she said. “Send him in sometime. If he’s not too moody for a chat.”

  Chapter 40

  Later in the evening, with Zar still groveling or avoiding me, I asked him to talk with Martha. But this was only in passing. Mostly, with everyone in skin and subdued, no one making eye contact with anyone else, I presented our plan for the night along with input from Isaac, Jason, and Andrew.

  We would leave here before midnight, heading north for the cemetery with the plan to arrive by 1:00 a.m. We would climb the wall, find the grave, dig it up, stow the remains in the ready duffel bag with a plastic garbage bag and a blanket to bundle the bones, return everything in place, and go.

  We would bring no more than three bikes. Myself with Isaac, Andrew also along for the lay of the land and to carry our equipment on his bike, including the bag, wire cutters, a crowbar, a flashlight, and so on. Plus one for an extra digger and lookout: Kage—on Jason’s bike. I did not explain my reasoning for this decision, though I had to resist as I felt the need to justify myself strong in the back of my throat. Nor did anyone ask.

  We would return hopefully by 4:00 a.m., get four or five hours of sleep, then set out for France and the ferry back home. In case of sniffer dogs—though I didn’t think this was the sort of thing they were trained to find—we would sprinkle the blanket with essential oils, then pack the bag with clothes in case it was opened at customs, and pray this would be enough to get us to England and not to a holding facility in France. Andrew would be in charge of the bag for the crossing.

  The latter, who had his glasses back and told me they were brilliant, was much amused by my setting the stage for a crime after we’d “had a row” about his nicking a few personal items in London. I did not discuss the matter with him.

  Obviously, this wasn’t my first choice. At the same time, though, if all went well, it wasn’t as if we were hurting anyone with this sort of crime. It was possible, even likely, that no one would ever know anything was wrong. Any family could still visit and respect the grave and … what they didn’t know…

  I tried not to think about it, hoping that if the family had known what was happening—that we were trying to stop murders and save lives—they would sympathize.

  After the meeting—with everyone out back of the guesthouse, looking morose and put upon—I returned inside. I cleaned up my blouse with tape to get off more fur, touched up my face, worked on my hair, and gathered my purse with normal things like ID, phone, and tissues rather than crowbar and gloves. Then I met Isaac out front as he pulled the bike around to the main house.

  Feeling many pairs of eyes on us but never looking around, I settled behind him and we took off at a glide down the gravel road. We zoomed off for Flintsbach and our Austrian dinner once we hit the pavement.

  The restaurant was dark with exposed beams, dim lights, and a feel that made me think we’d stopped at a roadside inn in the Middle Ages. I loved it. It almost made my skin tingle with the difference of it all—the reason for travel.

  By the time I was sitting across from Isaac with a local beer and his bottle of water, I felt that I was finally getting that deep breath I’d needed all day. The hike had been only an effort to decompress. This was the real deal, no effort needed.

  Isaac’s gentle, typical smile did wonders for my mental state as well.

  He wore a soft green button-down, paler than his eyes, that looked good on him, something he would probably wear to work, meeting clients. But it also hid his arm.

  I didn’t want to keep dwelling but had to ask.

  “Are you all right? Keeping a battle scar?”

  “Perhaps.” He smiled a bit more and glanced down. “It feels fine, though.”

  It seemed to me he’d favored the right, both when he’d still been in fur this afternoon and now coming in here.

  All the same, he was naturally left-handed and I didn’t challenge him. Or was he? Now that I thought about it, watching him as our appetizer of oysters arrived…

  “Are you ambidextrous?” I asked when Isaac offered me the plate.

  “An interesting question…” He took up oysters for us, holding the dish in his left hand and the spoon with his right. “I consider myself left-handed. I’ve always been left-dominant for writing and that’s supposed to be the key, it seems. However, I draw with my right sometimes when I’m working on plans. All in all, I favor each for different things.”

  “That’s a gift. If I try to sign my name with my left hand it looks like a chimp got hold of a pen.”

  “I do always sign with my left. Perhaps I could do forgeries with my right since that’s more my artistic side.”

  I laughed. “The way we’re heading? We might need that particular underworld skill next.”

  “Let’s hope not.” He lifted his glass to me before he started eating. “To journeys together.”

  “And keeping good company.” I toasted him and thought with a twinge that this one was coming to an end.

  “Something wrong?”

  I glanced up from my plate. “Only … the journey’s almost over.”

  “That’s for anoth
er Moon. Not right now.”

  “You all are able to live so in the moment.” I sighed. “Joseph said something similar to me this morning. And Martha. I admire that. Another skill I’m not sure I have, though.”

  “Perhaps with practice?”

  I smiled. “Perhaps.”

  As we ate, I asked Isaac questions. It had already seemed to become our thing and I adored it. I relaxed more with talking to him than the one drink or anything else about the evening.

  “Favorite color?” I said after a few other trivialities.

  “Depends what it’s on. Black on a motorbike, white on a building, blue on a sky, anything on you. You always look beautiful, and seem to know what flatters you. Why it is I appreciate that would be difficult to put into words, however—and end up making me sound shallow anyway.”

  “No… I understand what you’re saying. I don’t enjoy slovenliness in a date either. You don’t have to be an ego-maniac to take a bit of notice and time to your own appearance. I think it shows respect both for yourself, and, if it is a date, for your partner.”

  “How about you? Favorite color?”

  “I guess mine changes as well. Anything on the purple spectrum, anything pastel. I can’t stand wearing black.”

  “You shouldn’t. It would be too harsh for you.”

  “Okay, tell me something else. What are you afraid of?”

  “Cooking.”

  I laughed—needed a moment, in fact, to be able to keep eating. “What?”

  “No one would ever consider me for core anyway because I have a professional occupation, but it’s always struck me as a reason to keep clear of any core obligations, even though core are silver. Core are the heart of our pack and most respected members up to our elders. But core comes with cooking.”

  “How? Don’t they just stick a deer leg in the fire and throw it to the pups when the timer goes off? I’m sorry if that sounds bigoted—”

  “Oh, no, you’re quite right. But even that’s too much for me. I’ve never turned the oven on in my current home.”

  “You’re just saying that.”

  “Moon’s truth.” He held up his left hand. “Never. Core feed me because I’m a provider. My income is one of the highest in the pack. My tradeoff is meals and leisure time for my own interests. Interests which keep me far away from kitchens.”