Broken Moon: An Urban Fantasy Wolf Shifter Series (Kait Silver Book 1)

by Laken Cane

  We were frozen, the creature and I, held by some ancient magic that was neither of us, and it was both of us. It was everything. Even my wolf ran to hide, whimpering in terror and agony.

  Suddenly, it was over.

  I was flung off the creature, but my fingers were cramped and stuck around the hilt of the demon blade and it came with me, pulling from the creature’s heart with a thick, gooey sucking sound. My breath was knocked from me as I hit the ground, and I lay there trying to remember how to breathe.

  “I’m alive,” I croaked, finally. Everything hurt. I struggled to my feet, afraid the creature would come back to life before I could fetch the machete and slice off his head, but when I limped toward him and stood staring down at him, I realized he wasn’t ever coming back.

  He was…crispy. Black and burned and red and raw, his dry wings crumpled and ripped and spread out around him. His heart had come out with my blade and lay in the dirt beside his body. It was small and twisted up with red and black veins, and a few long strands of white matter stretched from it to the hole in his chest.

  I leaned over and severed them, and then attempted to hack the heart to bits, just in case. Before I could straighten, I lost my balance and fell to my knees, then listed sideways and finally, I was spent. Completely and utterly spent.

  But the exsoloup was dead, and I had killed him. Me, a wolf shifter. I wasn’t a demon, but I’d killed the creature anyway. I think I passed out, because when I next opened my eyes, wolves were standing around me. Not just the two who’d followed me into the woods, but at least a dozen others. And most of them had shifted.

  “I got him,” I told them, my voice broken and rusty. “I killed him.”

  I don’t know what I expected. Maybe I thought they’d cheer and suddenly love me and lift me from the ground to carry me tenderly back to their village. Maybe I thought they’d be so happy and relieved that they’d welcome me into their pack with open arms and gladness.

  They did not.

  “You’re a demon,” William said, satisfaction in his eyes. “You’re a fucking demon and you’ve infiltrated our pack with your lies and your treachery.”

  “What do we do with it?” the female guard asked. “Should we burn it?”

  “We can’t kill it until the alpha returns and says we can,” another wolf insisted, when one of them lifted my little hatchet as though to chop off my head. “You know how protective he is of her.”

  “It’s not a her,” William growled. “Not anymore. It’s a demon, and we will kill it. The alpha hates demons even more than we do.”

  They argued forever, it seemed to me, and all I wanted to do was lie there and rest. I’d never felt this sort of exhaustion. Something had happened to me when I’d killed the creature, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t going to expire on the spot and save the wolves some trouble.

  Finally, they decided to put me in their “jail,” which was basically a hole in a rock with a thick, silver barred door over the small entrance.

  They pulled my items from my pockets and belts, dumped the holy water on my wounds and down my throat, stripped me of my weapons and clothes, then bound me with my own zip ties.

  At last, they carried me away, and I did not care at all.

  I was no longer conscious.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  When I woke up, I was shivering hard as my body attempted to warm itself. I lay on a rock in my small prison, and the first thing my somewhat blurry vision focused on was the moon tattoo on the back of my right hand. It was broken, sliced in half by the exsoloup’s claw.

  I knew it was just a tattoo, but it seemed like a bad omen. My moon was broken, my shift was broken, I was broken.

  For a few seconds, despair overwhelmed me. But only for a few seconds.

  “No,” I muttered, “you are not broken, Princess. Your shift is not broken. The fucking moon will never be broken. Fuck you.”

  I was okay. I was fine.

  And I stuffed the despair into a box, locked it up tight, and refused to consider it again. For now, I would be strong.

  I wanted to convince the warrior wolves prowling outside my cell that I wasn’t a demon, but I couldn’t afford to spend precious energy on useless shit. They wanted to believe, and I’d given them good reason to. It was true that wolves hated demons above all else—even more than vampires—and the only reason I was still alive was because they were afraid of their alpha’s wrath.

  Apparently they weren’t quite afraid enough, though, or I’d at least have a fucking blanket. I was freezing to death. My injuries were so extensive I wasn’t healing nearly fast enough, and even my wolf was silent. The exsoloup had taken too much blood from me.

  Twice, a female rushed to my bars to lay a line of salt outside my cell door.

  I don’t know how I survived that day. Darkness fell, and still, I breathed. I kept my stare between the bars, watching, waiting. I knew Jared would come. He’d hear about what had happened, and he’d come.

  As I lay there, tall lights at the perimeter of the property began to flick on, lighting the area, and I watched the wolves as they paced before my cage like I might suddenly find the strength to burst free and kill them all.

  William came to my bars a few times, and I wondered as I watched him why on Earth his captain would choose him to lead in his absence. Maybe it was a training thing, because William was a bullying asshole who was too full of himself to lead well. I had to assume that despite his faults, he was genuinely committed to protecting his pack and was a good fighter.

  But he sure was an asshole.

  “I need some water,” I told him once, but my voice was as damaged as the rest of me and if he heard me, he ignored me.

  Two women rushed into the clearing. One of them was a tall redhead I didn’t remember seeing before, but the other was the girl who’d earlier been ordered to “shut up.” Apparently not every wolf here hated me.

  “The alpha is coming,” the girl yelled, and then jogged toward my cage door. “Eli is with him, and—”

  One of the guards slammed a palm against her chest and sent her reeling. “Go home, pup, before you get hurt.”

  The redhead with her looked at him, then sent her stare around the little group of wolves before finally settling it on William. “When I was finally able to contact Jared,” she told him, quietly, “I told him exactly what you’d done.” She paused, then walked to my cage door to peer inside. None of them attempted to stop her. “You all know me. You know I would not lie to you. Believe me when I say this. Our alpha will blame himself for what happened here today, but every single one of you who mistreated this girl will suffer for it.”

  “She’s a fucking demon,” William growled. “It is up to me to protect this pack when Jared and Eli are gone. My captain put me in charge, and I will do my duty.”

  “If she’s a demon,” she told him, “she’s only part demon. And she’s done nothing but try to help us. She alone destroyed the creature hunting and killing us. You let her fight alone, and you did nothing to help her. Warriors.” Her voice was sharp with contempt. “Trainees, is all. You will never be warriors now. And you, William, will be lucky if Jared does not banish you.” Then she turned her back on them and peered through the bars. “I tried to make them release you, but they wouldn’t listen. I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you,” I told her, and she flinched at the sound of my voice. Or maybe she’d just gotten a better look at me.

  “Jared shouldn’t have left the pack in the hands of these fools,” she said, her voice loud enough for the patrolling warriors to hear. “He didn’t believe you’d appear until tonight, as you always do, and he took his beta, his captain, and his best warriors to fight the Stone Moon Pack. Our scouts informed us before dawn that they were—”

  “Shut your mouth,” William yelled, advancing menacingly. “You do not tell outsiders or demons pack business!”

  She stared him down. “Jared would want her to know why he failed her.”

&nbs
p; Then other wolves slid from the shadows, but they said nothing, only stared at the lead warrior with silent accusations. They feared me because they believed I was a demon, but they didn’t want to be on the wrong side when the alpha returned.

  “You have no authority here,” William growled. “Go whine with the doctor and leave me be.”

  “If she dies,” the redhead told him, “Jared will make you suffer before he kills you.”

  “Fuck you, Lydia.” He got in her face, pushed too far. “Get the fuck out of here. Go home to your bitch, you sick fuck, before I have you thrown in with the demon. Then we’ll see, won’t we?”

  “Jared comes,” the pup said softly, and everyone in that clearing stiffened. They felt him. Even I felt him, and I was half dead and not his wolf. If I’d thought I was cold before, it was nothing compared with the icy wind that swept through my body now.

  A raging alpha was deadly, and he was terrifying. Every wolf in his care shivered beneath the weight of his anger.

  William stumbled back, and then, he shifted. He wouldn’t be able to help it, as overwhelming emotions rushed through him. Everyone in the clearing shifted.

  And Jared, still in his human form but no less frightening because of it, strode into the clearing. Eli and a man I guessed was the warrior captain were at his side. Jared didn’t glance my way as he walked to the shifted William, grabbed the wolf by the throat, and forced him to shift back to his human form.

  William tried to stand straight beneath his alpha’s anger, and despite his fear, he almost managed. “She’s a demon, Alpha. I witnessed her killing the Exsoloup with my own eyes. She stabbed it through the heart, and it died. We packed it to the freezer.”

  “She came to do her job,” the alpha said, almost gently, “and you repaid her by throwing her into a cell.” Without taking his stare from his wolf, he said, “Lydia. Her condition.”

  “They stripped her, sir. William wouldn’t allow us to treat her or give her water or warmth. She’s severely injured, and I don’t think she will survive much longer if she isn’t tended now.”

  “Open the cell door, William,” Jared said, and his huge attempt at restraint was more terrifying than if he’d simply unleashed his rage and started kicking ass.

  William looked for his clothes so he could take the key from his pocket. He started to take the time to put on his pants but at a growl from his captain, he thought better of it, rushed to the bars, and threw my cage door open.

  I saw everything, but I viewed it through a layer of cotton. Maybe I was dying. I couldn’t move, and even my shivering had ceased. I no longer felt pain. I was a frozen, bloodless chunk of meat. That’s what I felt like.

  Jared was suddenly at the door, blocking out the light, and for a few seconds he merely stared. Then he half turned. “Captain.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Find out who aided your charge warrior and show them the same courtesy they offered our hunter.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  His face was emotionless, but his eyes were terrible as he reached in and as gently as possible, pulled me off the hard rock and into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

  For the first time in endless, agonizing hours, my body began to warm. I curled my body into his heat and relaxed. When he lowered me to a bed a few minutes later, I resisted being deprived of his body heat until the doctor and nurse started shoving hot water bottles around my body and covered me with a pile of heated blankets. Nothing had ever felt so good.

  Jared leaned over me, brushing my face just once with his fingertips. “As soon as you’re strong enough to bear the shift, Kaitlyn, I will free your wolf.”

  “But the moon,” I whispered, my teeth chattering.

  He shook his head. “We can’t wait for the moon. I will be strong enough without it.” He stepped back. “As will you.” Then he nodded at the doctor. “Fix her. Stabilize her enough to withstand the shift, and her wolf will do the rest.”

  “Where are you going?” Dr. Hayes asked him, when he started to leave the room.

  “Call me when she’s stable. I have order to restore to my pack.”

  “Asshole pack,” the doctor muttered. “They yet test you.”

  “Yes,” Jared agreed. “I have been less harsh than my father, and that was my mistake.” He pointed at me, his expression cold enough to make the doctor look away. “Worry about your patient, and I will worry about my people.”

  “I am your people,” the doctor said, but Jared was already gone.

  “I need my blade and my cell phone,” I said, drawing his attention to me.

  “I’m sure Jared will—”

  “No,” I insisted, though my voice was little more than a whisper. “I need them now.”

  “All right,” he said. “We’ll get you your phone and…blade. Just a few more minutes, dear.”

  But Belinda slid a needle into my arm and when I woke up again, Lucy was sitting on the bed beside me, clutching my hand, and Detective Moreno was holding a gun on the alpha of the Gray Shadow Pack.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Dr. Hayes was standing in the doorway, with Belinda and Eli at his side. No one seemed to know what to do. I’d been dressed in a pair of slightly too large but soft pajamas, and I spotted my belts and weapons spilling from a bag on a little table at the foot of the bed. The hilt of my demon blade peeked from the bag and I breathed a little easier to see it. There was also a cloth bag into which I assumed my bloody clothes had been placed.

  “What the fuck,” I croaked, my throat as dry as a cracked desert floor, “is going on? Rick, put that gun away. Detective,” I snapped, when he continued to stare at Jared, his gun pointed at the other man’s chest. “What are you doing?”

  He ignored me. “Get her up, Ms. Shannon,” he told Lucy.

  I felt better than I had earlier, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t still a whole hell of a lot of pain and weakness. My regular pain seemed worse, despite the fact that I no longer teetered on the sharp cliff edge of death, but I was likely just having a harder time dealing with it in my weakened state.

  Lucy slid off the bed and took my arm, tugging gently. “Come on, Kait. The detective’s car is waiting. Let’s get you home.”

  “Guys—”

  “Kaitlyn,” Jared said, “Let your friends take you home. I will come to you. Right now, there is no convincing them that I mean you no harm.” Finally, he took his stare off the detective and looked at me. “You will rest. Tomorrow night, I’ll call you.”

  I knew what he was saying. Tomorrow night I would be strong enough to shift.

  The detective’s jaw bunched as he clenched his teeth. “If I see you near her house, I’ll arrest you.” Without taking his stare from the alpha, he grabbed my belongings and slung the straps of the bags over his shoulder. He then stepped to me and Lucy, and with her on one side and him on the other, they walked me out of the clinic.

  I glanced at the alpha, and though he met my stare, his expression didn’t soften. His pack was in an uproar because of me. I’d brought human law enforcement to his land. Right about now, he was probably thinking I was more trouble than I was worth.

  “They had an IV in your hand,” Lucy hissed, as they walked me slowly through the building. Detective Moreno had lowered his gun as we walked, but he didn’t holster it. “I took it out as soon as we got there. You seemed…drugged.”

  I sighed. I’d explain when we were in the detective’s car and away from Shadowfield. There wasn’t a wolf in sight, but I knew they watched from the shadows that the lights couldn’t reach. Wolves didn’t need a lot of light to see by. “It’s dark,” I murmured, surprised.

  “You were gone since this morning,” Lucy told me. She got into the back seat as Rick helped me into the front passenger seat, continuing to chatter. “You had the detective’s card on the fridge, so I called him and he came right away. He tracked your phone and that’s how we found you.”

  I was barefoot, but they’d probably put my boots int
o one of the bags Rick had slung over his shoulder. He placed the bags at my feet, then pulled the seatbelt across my body. Though he had to feel my stare on his face, he didn’t look at me as he leaned over me. I got the distinct feeling that he was pissed at me for scaring him.

  He smelled slightly of water and the subtle hint of soap, as though he’d been fresh out of the shower when Lucy had called him.

  “I’m sorry, Rick,” I murmured.

  The seatbelt clicked as it locked into place and he flicked his stare toward me as he pulled away. He said nothing, however, just withdrew, slammed my door shut, and strode around the front of the car.

  “We were very worried,” Lucy said.

  “Lucy,” I told her. “We’re going to have to set some rules. You can’t call the detective every time I go missing for a day. I hunt supernatural creatures, you know that. Shit will happen.”

  “And I,” she declared, as Rick climbed into the car, “will be here to make sure you’re okay.”

  I sighed. “Thanks for looking out for me.”

  “Of course,” she said, satisfied. “Ash will be so glad to see you. He’s been pacing and staring at the door. Spooked me a little…”

  “Explain,” Rick ordered, sounding so much like Jared that I stared at him for a few seconds, my eyebrows raised.

  “There was a nasty creature Jared Walker hired me to hunt down and kill,” I told him. “You know what I do, Rick.”

  “No,” he said, “I know little about your life, Ms. Silver. I know there’s a lot you don’t tell me. I know you see…spirits, and I know there’s a demon causing problems. I thought he’d possessed someone and had gotten to you.”

  He cared about me. I reached over to squeeze his forearm and his whole body seemed to tense even as his arm jerked beneath my grip. I pulled my hand away. “Thanks, Rick.” I cleared my throat. “The creature. It was…vicious. I’ve been hunting it for days. This morning I finally found it, but I was alone when we fought. It nearly got the best of me. Jared and his people saved my life.” I hesitated, then, “He’s not going to hurt me.”