Under Cover of the Moon

by Loribelle Hunt

  “You bit me hard enough to break the skin?” she asked, shocked. What kind of man was he?

  He turned her around and lifted her hair away from her nape.

  “Let me see,” he murmured. His fingers rubbed gentle circles around the spot and she felt a curious clenching inside her chest.

  “I’m sorry,” he added.

  He didn’t sound the least bit contrite. He sounded…pleased. She stepped away and picked up the shirt.

  He sighed. “Do you have to do that?”

  “Work? Remember?” She arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you work?”

  Embarrassment heated her face and she eyed the shirt like it was to blame. She didn’t know anything about this man. She faced the door while she pulled on the shirt and then her sandals. She didn’t hear Darius come up behind her, but suddenly he was there, with his arms circling her waist and his lips nuzzling her neck.

  “I’m a photographer,” he said, turning her around.

  “A photographer…as in portraits?”

  “Magazines mostly, some posters, anything that pays the bills,” he said lightly. “I’m a freelance nature photographer.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  Disappointment knifed through her. He must be here to photograph the lake and national park. He wasn’t here permanently. Funny to feel such pain over someone she hardly knew.

  “How long are you going to be here?” she asked anyway. Better to get this hurt over with, work their crazy chemistry out of her system, and move on with her life.

  “I'm not going anywhere, baby. I just moved here,” he answered, turning her around. “I have a few out of town commitments, but the truth is I have plenty of money. I'm not accepting new assignments right now so my work won’t affect us.”

  She nodded. Intuition warned her there was a great deal he wasn’t telling her, but her quick flash of panic had passed when he said he now lived here. Her reaction should worry her. Had she promised earlier to keep her distance? And now this. She would never look at her office the same way again.

  “So…maybe we should try an actual date?” She wanted to kick herself for sounding like a teenager, laughed instead and tried to joke. “Usually my dates don’t start this way. Been awhile since one ended this way too.”

  Her attempt to joke wasn’t appreciated. He stilled and she swore a predator stared back at her from his gaze, dark and dangerous. She'd made him angry, no, more like furious. Wariness tingled along her spine. She brushed aside the image of rising hackles, and wondered if she should try to read him. No. She made it a point to stay out of people’s heads when at all possible. He growled, the sound sexy and frightening at the same time.

  “I’m not an easygoing man, Meg. I’m possessive, and I’m used to my orders being followed without question. I don’t want you going out with anyone else, and you especially won’t be ending any dates like this with anyone but me. You're mine.”

  “Well. Wow.”

  She gaped at him, unsure how to respond to that outrageous little speech. Briefly, she wondered who took orders from him, but she didn’t waste time on it. She had a more serious issue to deal with. That possessiveness. On one hand, she couldn’t begin to imagine any other man being able to compete with Darius. On the other, she didn’t want him thinking he was going to be in a position to boss her around or that she’d let him.

  There was something else bothering her she didn’t understand. Having sex with him had relieved a lot of the tension she had been feeling, but now she felt even more connected to him. She hadn’t expected anything more than to satisfy her inexplicable craving for him. Her hand went to the mark he’d left on her neck. Something about it was triggering a memory, but it was too elusive to grasp.

  “I’m not good at following orders,” she said.

  It was a warning, but he didn’t take the hint. His arms tightened around her.

  “It’s not that I want to order you around. I'm not that much of a control freak. I just need to know that you’re safe and,” he paused and seemed to hesitate over the right word, “mine.”

  She was stopped from challenging his possessive streak by his phone ringing again. He didn’t let her go as he answered it, and he listened in silence to the person on the other end. Finally he released her, and after dressing, he gave her a lingering kiss.

  “I have to go meet some people,” he said. “I’ll be back before you close.”

  “Who are you meeting?” she asked.

  He gave her a smile that smacked of paternalism, and she narrowed her eyes. “No one you know.”

  Evasiveness irritated her in the best of circumstances. This didn’t count as one of those. He seemed to think he could make demands on her time and order her around, but he didn’t have to answer a simple question? Fury bubbled up from deep inside her, and she tried to rein it in. The last thing she needed was to blow all bar's fuses because she let her temper slip.

  “Don’t rush,” she said. Anger made her hands shake and she shoved them into her back pockets. She’d be damned if he saw how much he affected her. “I think tomorrow’s soon enough for us to get together again.”

  He looked at her through hard eyes, his jaw clenched. “I need to see you tonight,” he said.

  She saw the raw need in his pale blue gaze, and struggled to conceal the crazy yearning inside her own body. She wanted more from Darius than a strictly physical relationship, but how could that be possible when he had started out keeping secrets? Oh, who was she kidding? He was irresistible, and she had no doubt she'd end up having sex with him again. The novelty would wear off for both of them soon enough. She might as well enjoy him while it lasted. Irritated with herself for her easy justifications, she nodded and hoped it didn’t come back to bite her in the ass. “Fine.”

  “Good,” he answered. He pressed a quick, hot kiss to her lips and left.

  Chapter Four

  Another man, this time a game warden, had been attacked in the forest near the lake. He had managed to get to his truck and radio for help, but he wasn’t expected to live. Before he lost consciousness he had told the paramedics that it hadn’t been a bear, but a wolf that attacked him. Darius had known that but it was fucking inconvenient that now the humans in the area did too.

  He met Eric and Trey in the parking lot of his apartment building to join in the hunt for the wolf. The back of the complex bordered a triangle of woods. The other two sides were edged by the lake and the stretch of road where Meg’s house was located.

  Whether it was just a wolf or a rogue werewolf was unknown--though highly likely--they were best equipped to track it. If it was a werewolf, it not only endangered the local human population, but his people as well should it be trapped by a human. They'd all end up hunted if they were ever discovered.

  The three men walked into the wood line and prepared to change shape. Their sense of smell was far superior to man’s, and Darius hoped he would recognize the scent of the attacking wolf. He was so on edge that his suspicious nature was beginning to look to the werewolves he could verify lived in the area, and it pissed him off. Especially being suspicious of Trey. His friend had been acting more secretive than usual, but he refused to believe he'd gone rogue.

  Werewolves were very careful to conceal what they were, and it was against all of their laws to attack a human. In an age of science and medical labs and DNA, it was pure recklessness to court discovery. They weren’t immune to the capriciousness of human nature, though, and had their own nuts. A small group of individuals, mostly part of a group called the Society, felt they should be able to treat humans as prey and claimed to be natural predators of humans. Trey had spent most of his life hunting them. Darius had no experience with them, but his gut sure suspected the Society. One of the outlaws was obviously testing his resolve to protect his territory. Either that or an insane were had moved into the area. A rarity, but not unheard of.

  He divided the swamp into three sections, assigning one to each wolf to search. He considered calling in some of
the other males to help, but discarded the idea. His two best trackers were working the area with him. Hell, no one was better at this than Trey. It was unlikely adding more noses would help.

  “You seem much calmer tonight.” Eric grinned at him. “She must be coming around.”

  “She’s getting used to me,” he joked, but he wasn’t really feeling it. “At this rate she’ll come around in fifty years or so.”

  Eric snorted. “What about your infamous charm, man? I thought women couldn’t resist you.”

  “Don’t ask,” he said and shook his head.

  Things were challenging enough between settling the pack and catching the wolf. When he added convincing Meg that she belonged with him to the mix, he cringed at an unexpected twinge of guilt. He’d marked her, biting her hard enough to mix the enzymes in his saliva with her blood. All without explaining a thing to her. He sighed. She wasn’t going to like being bound to him without having first been consulted. What was the modern lingo? Freak out? That about summed up what her reaction would be.

  He sent Eric and Trey in their assigned directions and walked deeper into the woods. Finding a secluded spot, he took off his clothes and shoes, and folded them into a small backpack that he dropped over his shoulders. He sat on the ground and closed his eyes, picturing a wolf in his mind. He concentrated on relaxing while his bones contorted and popped to the wolf’s shape and fur bristled over his skin. He was so practiced the conversion took just a few seconds, and then he was standing in the little clearing with his nose turned up, sniffing the air.

  The section he chose to search for himself included Meg’s house since both attacks had occurred within the area’s imaginary boundaries. His skin crawled at the thought of a predator so close to her, and her unprotected. He was putting a stop to that tonight even if he had to sleep on her deck in wolf form.

  He trotted off in the direction of the most recent attack. It was a short run, and a waste of time. Too many men had been in the area, and their smells mingled with Eric’s and Trey’s, who’d already been there to investigate. He circled out, but found nothing, then got distracted exploring the area around Meg’s house. The forest floor was cool and shady, a leafy canopy stretched overhead, and a crystal stream flowed along the edge of her property. He was going to enjoy living out here.

  He circled back to where he'd left his clothes. The snapping of a twig alerted him to the presence of others. He tested the wind and caught their scents some yards behind him. He changed form and dressed quickly. He was feeling edgy and was glad they had not come upon him while he was near Meg’s home. He didn’t trust his reaction as a wolf to another male’s presence near her house. He had to get a grip on his possessive instincts. His people would need to be able to go to him there. He hoped things would improve once she had accepted who he was and what they were to each other.

  He found Eric and Trey sitting against a couple of trees where they’d started and interrupted their quiet conversation.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  They both shook their heads no.

  “Nothing we didn’t expect,” Eric said. “Game wardens, paramedics, and us.”

  “That’s all I got too,” Trey answered.

  Darius rubbed a hand over the ache starting in his temple. He was going to find out what was going on here, but probably not tonight.

  “Okay. You two go on home.”

  Trey was staying with one of the other single men, but would be moving into the house he'd just bought soon. He nodded goodbye to him and Eric before approaching his building. They walked toward their cars.

  “He okay?” Darius asked, nodding after Trey. “He’s acting weirder than usual.”

  “Far as I know, he’s fine. He’s mostly kept to himself since he got here, but that’s not anything new.”

  “Yeah.” Darius sighed. “Hey, do you have one of those wolves you carve?” He grinned. “I need one.”

  “You need one?” Eric asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Meg saw one at your store.”

  “I see.” Eric smiled. “Never thought I’d see the day when you were—”

  “What?” he asked, unclenching his jaw, knowing whatever Eric said would be designed to irritate him.

  “Nothing,” Eric said with feigned innocence Darius didn’t buy for a minute. “Stop by the store and pick up whatever it was she wanted. You’ve got a key, right?”

  “Yeah, I’ll go by and get it. You want to get a beer?”

  He laughed. “No. I’m going home and getting laid. My woman isn’t running away from me.”

  Darius growled. “Better go then before I find you something urgent to do first.”

  Imperturbable as usual, Eric laughed and waved goodbye as he slipped into his car.

  * * *

  Meg was waiting for him to come back and trying hard to pretend she wasn’t, that it wasn’t important to see him again so soon. But her frustration level was growing. It had been several hours. She threw herself into the pile of paperwork on her desk, caught it up and took over the bar, but he was still nowhere to be seen.

  It wasn't a busy night, so she sent her afternoon bartender home at nine. It may have been slow, but the conversation was animated and outrageous. Word flew through town that Jimmy Barr, a state park game warden, had been attacked by a wolf, but there hadn’t been any wolves in the area in decades. Was that why Darius had run off so quickly? But why? What could it possibly have to do with him? If chasing down wolves was his job, why wouldn’t he have told her? Why be so secretive about that?

  A group of regulars sat at the bar discussing the situation while she listened with half interest and slow simmering anger.

  “Maybe someone kept one as a pet and let it loose,” a plumber named Bill speculated.

  “That’s just dumb, Bill,” Chuck said. “Why would a pet attack a man? It’d be used to people.”

  Bill shrugged. “How else do you explain a wolf being here?”

  “It migrated from somewhere, obviously,” Chuck said, disdain dripping in his voice.

  “That’s as dumb as my pet theory. Like no one would have noticed a wolf wandering around.”

  “No one has noticed a wolf wandering around.”

  “Well, maybe it’s not a normal wolf,” Bill said.

  “What else could it be? What the hell’s normal for a wolf anyway?”

  Meg smiled to herself at the sudden vision she had of the two young men, old and grizzled in fifty years, still arguing on barstools inside her place. She made her way down the length of the bar, checking other costumers, when she heard a remark that had her whipping her head around in shocked awareness.

  “Maybe it’s a werewolf,” Bill joked.

  The men around him laughed. Meg tried to appear calm and steady her pulse, but her gift was screaming in sudden insight. There was a werewolf stalking the forest, and Darius was one too. She'd known there was something not quite human about him. No wonder he made her feel hunted. She was certain he wasn’t a killer, though he seemed capable of it. For some crazy reason she couldn’t begin to explain, she felt safe with him. Physically at least. Her heart was another matter.

  The bar was beginning to clear out and a quick glance at her watch showed the hour pushing closing time. Twenty minutes till two. The last two servers on duty were herding out the lingerers, gathering glasses to wash, and lifting chairs onto empty tables. Meg filled the time restocking the bar.

  She was pushing Bill and Chuck out the door when the phone rang. Glaring at it, she debated not answering. He was a predator. Smooth and lethal and controlled. Like he owned his environment and everything in it. On top of that, she had the uneasy feeling she wouldn’t be able to walk away. He'd find a way to seduce her back, and that just pissed her off. He was bossy and arrogant, and he had left her hanging all night. He didn’t really think she was the kind of woman who would stand being left in the dark, did he? He was in for a rude surprise if that’s what he believed.

  Against her better j
udgment, she sighed and grabbed the phone before the machine could pick up. She knew it was a mistake to give even an inch, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. Besides, she wanted a few answers and he was the only one who might give them to her.

  “What do you want?” she snapped.

  There was a pause before he answered, “Do you always answer the phone like that?”

  “Only when it’s you, Darius,” she said sweetly.

  “I didn’t notice you had caller ID on any of the phones in the bar.”

  “I don’t. I knew it was you. Didn’t I mention that I know things? I’m a witch. Surely someone's told you that?”

  The servers swept and mopped, in a hurry to clock out. They caught Meg’s glance and waved as they left.

  “Look, I’m closing up. Can we argue later? I have a hot tub at home calling my name.”

  She felt a sudden flare of desire and damn it was potent. She knew she was picking it up from Darius. It jumpstarted her own libido.

  “How ’bout I meet you there?” he asked. “I have a couple of things I need to do first. We’ll meet in, say, thirty minutes?”

  In for a penny, in for a pound. ”Sure. Thirty minutes," she agreed and gave him her address. She had a few things to say to Darius Stewart. She hung up the phone, grabbed her bag, and locked up.

  Chapter Five

  Her house was on the edge of the swamp, set far off the road and backing up to the wood line. The log A-frame--not exactly common in central Alabama--was on the smaller size. The master bedroom and bath were in the loft, and the bottom floor was an open kitchen and living room, with a half-bath tucked to one side. A porch wrapped around the entire place. She had seen it and fallen in love with the back deck, with its weathered redwood planks, built in bench seats, and peaceful setting. And the hot tub, of course.

  Today was definitely a hot tub day. She pulled into her drive dreaming of warm bubbles, but food came first. She’d ignored dinner. It was hard to get interested in eating when your sex drive had your stomach tied up in knots and you thought your new boyfriend was a werewolf.