Her Noble Owl (Marked By The Moon Book 4)

by Kestra Pingree

  “Don’t eat too fast,” Stella warned. “Your stomach isn’t used to so much food.”

  Russel nodded, but he continued to wolf the sandwich down like he’d never get a chance to eat anything like it again. She hated that desperation.

  With his back to her as he placed the rest of the food inside of the fridge, Stella had the opportunity to watch Cedric without him watching her. At first, he seemed reluctant to turn his back, but he got over that easily once Stella and Russel had food to occupy them. He probably figured they wouldn’t attack him while they ate.

  The Snows seemed like stuck up snobs, rich pricks, but they were easy on the eyes—this one in particular. They were probably all snowy owl shifters, and they had such a high standing in this world. It was kind of amazing. But it also made her sick. Everything about Cedric was regal in a ridiculous kind of way. He moved like a ribbon in the wind, flowing and smooth. He wasn’t wearing anything that looked too expensive, but he wore it like it was. It had to be the way he moved again and the way he filled out those clothes with hard muscle.

  She shivered and rubbed her arms. Something about his scent made her uneasy. His scent had turned sour. Maybe he wasn’t feeling well.

  What kind of person was Cedric Snow? She didn’t know, but the news didn’t paint him in the best light. And he was big news. Even she knew about his disappearance.

  Apparently, Cedric had run out on his wife and child. Stella hadn’t heard anything about physical abuse or whatever, but it sure sounded like he didn’t give a damn about his family. Just like Tyler. The Berserker Tyler. The old Tyler was different. He cared about his pack. Cedric never cared about his family. So why did he invite her and Russel to eat his expensive food? It had to be fear. Maybe that was what his sour scent meant, though that didn’t seem right. She didn’t smell fear exactly, but there was simply no way Cedric was doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He wasn’t that kind of person.

  Cedric stood up straight, closed the fridge, and turned around to catch Stella staring at him. She didn’t break eye contact with him. She needed to maintain an aura of command. She was the one in control. She was an omega wolf and this was fucking exhausting, but her son needed her to be an alpha. He needed her to be strong.

  “You can relax. I’m not ratting either of you out,” Cedric said with a slight huff of his breath. Even his mannerisms were delicate, royal.

  “And I’m just supposed to take your word for that,” Stella replied. She knew better than to do that.

  His eyes were cold as he looked at her with an unreadable expression. His eyes were hazel, silvery like his hair. But she could see gold in them too. Beautiful and dangerous man. What was he thinking?

  “Yes,” he said after a moment. “Take my word for it because you can sense my intentions, my emotions, can’t you? In my experience, wolves are pretty damn exceptional when it comes to sniffing out liars.”

  His experience? Stella retorted, “Wolves can be wrong too.”

  “Once in a while perhaps.”

  “Even good shifters can go bad.”

  Cedric’s perfect lips turned downward slightly, revealing the barest hint of a frown. “How can I get you to trust me?”

  “You can’t,” Stella said curtly.

  Russel looked between his mother and the snowy owl. He was quiet, but he was taking it all in like he always did. And one thing was different. Russel wasn’t on edge. He was calm and almost content. Perhaps it was because Cedric didn’t have an overbearing alpha aura or perhaps it was because he didn’t feel particularly hostile. Tyler was in a constant state of aggression. All he needed to do was walk in the room and it filled with Berserker energy. It automatically put both Russel and Stella on high alert.

  Suddenly, Cedric pulled a knife from the knife block on the counter. Stella’s heart lurched into her throat, and she almost choked. She stood in a flurry, ready to protect Russel with her life. Her heart was pounding, and her vision was pulsing. Before she could jump over the breakfast bar and disarm him, Cedric flipped the knife around in an easy motion so he was holding the blade and the hilt was extended toward Stella. She hesitantly reached for it. She wrapped her fingers around the handle and easily took it from the snowy owl shifter without cutting him as he deliberately handed it off to her.

  Her grip on the hilt was so tight her fingers lost their warm brown color and looked a ghostly white. She didn’t know what the bird was planning, but she was tense with anticipation. The only thing between them was the breakfast bar.

  Cedric rolled up his sleeve, bent down, and placed his right arm on the polished wood countertop. He rested his arm so his palm was showing, along with the inner part of his forearm. The soft blue of his veins hid just below the surface of his pale skin, rivers of his lifeblood.

  “If you really think I’m no good, you can get rid of me right now,” he said with icy calm. His eyes were gold now. “Or maybe you’d prefer my neck.” He tilted his head back to expose his throat. “If you want to make it quick.”

  Stella balked. Cedric Snow was certifiably crazy. What the fuck was he doing? What was he trying to prove? Should she kill him? He would be out of the way. She wouldn’t have to worry about keeping her eye on him constantly because he wouldn’t be able to go out and tell anyone about her and Russel, but then she would have murder on her hands. And Russel, what would he think of her? She glimpsed her son from out of the corner of her eye. She needed to keep him safe. A million thoughts and scenarios flashed through her mind as Cedric stayed perfectly still and watched her with golden snowy owl eyes.

  “I’m going to trust my instincts,” Cedric spoke. “My instincts are telling me to help you and Russel. Now I’m going to make a promise. I promise to protect the two of you with my life.”

  Stella ground her teeth together. Heat pooled at a specific point on her forehead. She could practically feel a vein popping out with the fury boiling in her blood. This owl was, in fact, a lunatic. Protect her and Russel? Her vision flashed to a time long past, and she could see Tyler standing in Cedric’s place. He said something much like this once. Her fucking Alpha said he would protect her and the pack with his life, but he betrayed her in the worst possible way.

  A whimper broke out from Russel’s lips. Stella snapped. She sliced forward, determined to cut down Cedric’s forearm and make him bleed out. To kill him. She was moving so quickly, but everything around her seemed to slow down. The closer the blade got to Cedric’s porcelain skin, the more she regretted the action she had yet to deliver.

  She stopped.

  Stella stopped her lethal slice an inch before cutting into Cedric’s extended forearm. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t move. He just watched her, golden eyes boring into her very soul and exposing her for what she was. A broken wolf. A fallen star.

  “You’re insane,” she informed. “I almost killed you.” She still held the knife tightly just above his arm, but she knew she wouldn’t follow through with the action of cutting and killing. Not now. Not when her son was silently pleading with her with eyes more gold than brown, more wolf than boy.

  “Yes, but I trusted you wouldn’t kill me, and it looks like I was right,” Cedric said, completely unfazed. “Maybe that means you’ll give me a chance to make good on my promise.”

  It was too much. Stella cried out and threw the knife across the kitchen. Her throw was wild and uncalculated, but the knife flew straight and true, burying its blade into a wooden cabinet. Then she screamed as she collapsed onto a stool at the breakfast bar, unable to stand on her own two feet. She planted her elbows on the wood countertop and held her head, fingers burrowed into her matted hair. Her son was tense at her side, and she felt ashamed for losing it like this in front of him.

  She shook and shook before she was able to look up at Cedric again. The usual cold and unreadable look in his eyes were replaced with an echo of Stella’s pain as he held her gaze. He stood unwaveringly and said nothing, but he didn’t have to. The look in his eyes said it all. He was
telling the truth. Until the truth became something else. Until a good Alpha went Berserker.

  But she wanted it to be true. She wished someone wanted to help her and Russel, and if that someone was Cedric Snow, she didn’t care. If he was telling the truth. If he meant it. Because she had carried this for too long. God, did she need help.

  Someone help me.

  Stella took a deep breath, turned to her son, looked him in the eye, and said, “I’m sorry, Russel.”

  He replied by opening his arms out to her. She was grateful for that gesture as she hugged him tightly, held him close and apologized again.

  Cedric gasped and stepped away from the breakfast bar. Stella and Russel stayed close as they warily returned their gaze to him, hearts pounding in unison. Cedric’s eyes were wide and he was looking at his forearm, at the same place Stella almost cut into him. Static zipped in the air and made the fine hairs on Stella’s arms bristle. Cedric’s wide-eyed look faded, but his eyes stayed an intense gold, an almost piercing yellow.

  “The Moon is backing me up,” he said quietly. He held out his forearm, indicating the place below his wrist. There was a distinct half-moon shape there. It glowed blue for an instant before fading into a subtle sheen of silvery skin that didn’t stand out much from his own fair skin except for when the light hit it at a certain angle.

  “This is proof. My words are true,” he continued. “If you aren’t convinced now, then there’s really no way I can get you to trust me.”

  Stella couldn’t breathe. This was a Lunas Sigil, a Moon Mark created by Lunas, the Moon’s power. Did this mean he was well and truly bound to his words? Stella knew what she was, her ability to shift, it all came from the Moon. Was the same true for Cedric?

  Russel grabbed Stella’s left arm, rolled up her sleeve, and placed his left arm beside hers on the wood countertop, palms facing the ceiling. “Mom!” he exclaimed.

  Their skin was glowing the same blue Cedric’s was a moment ago. In the same place too, except on their left, like a mirror image. Stella stared as the glow faded and left that same shiny half-moon shaped mark. She could feel Lunas burning in her veins, concentrated in that area below her wrist. This was power. This was the seal on a contract. An unbreakable vow? She felt it, but could she put her trust in an old Moon tale she never saw any proof of until this moment?

  Cedric looked sincere. He felt sincere. No, she didn’t know anything about him other than what she learned on the news, not that she could trust anything she heard on the news. But she still didn’t know him. She didn’t know what was in his heart. She didn’t know the extent of the Moon’s power, but her heart said yes. Her heart and instincts told her she could trust Cedric. That she should. She could trust the Moon, and somehow everything would be okay for the first time since Tyler broke himself and everyone around him.

  That seemed too good to be true.

  “You’re full of surprises, Cedric Snow,” she said. “You’re not the man I imagined you’d be.”

  Cedric smiled, really smiled. It was radiant, white teeth flashing and eyes aglow. It made her chest squeeze.

  “Hopefully, that’s a good thing,” he replied.

  Russel smiled back without reserve. That action alone told Stella this was indeed a good thing—at least for now. Russel was at ease for the first time in his life. He seemed to take an immediate liking to this snowy owl. Still, a part of her doubted. She wouldn’t hand her fate over to someone or something else. She would never do that again. Pledging to an Alpha meant trust and a bond, but that hadn’t been nearly strong enough. She had a pup to protect. Moon Magic or not, Cedric was a man she didn’t know, and the Moon hadn’t done her any favors so far. She would be wise to proceed with caution.

  Chapter 7

  HOW DID HE DO that?

  Cedric accessed Lunas. He made a pledge and the Moon backed him up. He meant every word of what he said, and the Moon heard his resolve. Stella wasn’t hovering over him anymore like he was a livewire. He probably had the Lunas Sigil to thank for that, but the woman was still jumpy as hell. The Moon Mark wasn’t enough, but it helped. That was something at least, an opportunity. He would have to do the rest on his own.

  Fair enough.

  The first thing Cedric did was clean the cuts Stella gave him. They were shallow enough they’d heal on their own after that. He also changed his pants for a pair that hadn’t been ripped into. The next thing he did was patch up that broken window. No, he didn’t install new glass or anything like that. He wasn’t that handy, and it wasn’t like he had an extra window lying around. He found some good old-fashioned cardboard and duct tape. It worked well enough for now. It stopped the draft. Stella and Russel observed him the entire time (not when he changed, thank God), but neither one lifted a finger or said anything. He was used to being watched, but not like this. This kind of watching made him feel like a criminal in a prison.

  Cedric glanced at the new cell phone Nathan had given him before he left for the cabin. It wasn’t much use here. There wasn’t any service, but if he really needed to make a call, he could always drive out to a more populated area of Kansas City, basically anywhere away from the cabin, and he’d get a signal. He was anxious to see Terry and Opal, but Stella would likely have a fit if he told her he needed to leave for a few hours. He was walking on thin ice with that one. The Lunas Sigil didn’t make her trust him. It just bought him some distance. He didn’t feel good about leaving them anyway.

  The cabin was as bare of technology as Cedric remembered. He was going around uncovering and dusting everything so the place would feel more like a home rather than an abandoned haunted house. He came across the TV and DVD player. There were no stations, but his parents had allowed the TV and DVD player. The bulky square-shaped TV looked so dated when compared to all the thin flat screens he was used to now. Instead of DVDs, there were Blu-rays and 4K. The world changed a lot in a lifetime, and he was only twenty-eight.

  He sighed. When and how should he get in contact with Terry? A direct phone call seemed like a bad idea. He could get Nathan to set something up. They were all living in the same place right now. It would be easy for him. But before that, Cedric had two wolf shifters who needed his help. He needed to get them feeling safe and learn more about their situation before he could do anything else. That meant they needed to do something fun. That’d get them to loosen up, right?

  Cedric went through closets until he found exactly the items he was looking for. Ice skates, coats, the works for a winter wonderland excursion. His dad’s old stuff probably fit him just fine. He figured his old ice skates would fit Russel, and his mother’s stuff seemed to fit Stella more or less. It was worth a shot anyway. Once he had everything, he set it all down in the entryway.

  “What are you doing?” Russel asked.

  Cedric grabbed his old blue-gray ice skates and a pair of never-before-used socks he found and held them to the young wolf shifter. “Try these on and tell me if they fit.”

  “Why do they have blades on the bottom?” Russel asked as he kept his arms and hands stiff at his sides.

  “They’re ice skates…” The kid had never seen ice skates before?

  “Oh, I knew that,” the boy said hastily as he took the ice skates and plopped down right there on the wood floor below to put them on.

  “You’ve never ice skated before, huh?” Cedric said tactfully.

  “What are you doing?” Stella asked as she came out of the shadows in the living room. Her arms were folded and she looked displeased as her son worked at those old ice skates.

  “We’re going to the pond to ice skate. It’s perfect right now.” Cedric held out his mother’s old pair of ice skates and a pair of socks. They were still a pristine white despite the wear. His mother was a clean freak, a perfectionist. If she found a spot of mud anywhere, it was the end of the world. Cedric and Nathan never had a chance to be messy boys because of that but whatever.

  Stella refused to take the ice skates, so Cedric knelt on the floor to
inspect Russel’s. “Looks like they fit pretty well. Feel okay?”

  Russel shrugged. “They’re stiff and tight.”

  “That’s how they’re supposed to feel. They’re going to support you on the ice. You don’t want them to be all wobbly.”

  Cedric grinned and to his relief, Russel grinned back. Stella, on the other hand, was wearing an epic frown. He tried not to think about it. Once he had them both out on the iced over pond, things would be different. They’d have fun.

  “These were my ice skates when I was twelve,” Cedric informed.

  “I’m ten,” Russel replied.

  “Well, you’re a wolf shifter. You’ll probably be bigger than me someday.”

  Russel nodded his head. “And I’ll take care of my mom.”

  “You don’t take care of her already?”

  Russel seemed to consider that question, but he didn’t answer. His brown eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. Cedric thought they were brown anyway. Russel and Stella both needed a good washing. After this, they’d hopefully feel comfortable enough to take a bath.

  “I bet you do,” Cedric continued. He picked up his mother’s ice skates again as he stood and held them out to Stella. “You going to join us?”

  She kept her arms folded. “I don’t know how to ice skate.”

  “I’ll teach you.”

  Reluctantly, she accepted the ice skates after exchanging a quick look with her son. “We’ll have to see if they even fit first. Whose are these?”

  “My mother’s. They don’t have to be a perfect fit. As long as they are close like Russel’s, you’ll be good to go for some fun out on the ice.”

  She huffed at him, but she placed her pretty ass on the floor next to her son and put the things on. It was another success. Neither pair fit perfectly, but they were pretty damn close. Cedric tried on his father’s ice skates and was met with the same amount of success. How about that? Luck, or the Moon, was on his side today.

  “All right. Boots and coats on,” Cedric announced, handing Russel and Stella the other clothing items he grabbed from the closets he scavenged.