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

by Laken Cane

  I was. My mother lay crumpled against the base of a tree, and Greg crouched over her, his body twice as big as hers and almost as bloody. He opened his mouth, growling, and prepared to rip out her throat. He was going to kill her, which meant his alpha had not forbidden him to. More than likely, he’d told his warriors to kill us if we gave them trouble.

  Now I could use my demon blade, and I didn’t hesitate. I flung it at the wolf’s head. I’d been honing my knife throwing skills since I was six years old, and my aim was true. The wolf didn’t just roar and stagger off into the shadows as his brother had done. His brother hadn’t been stuck with a demon blade, though. He would heal. Greg wouldn’t.

  The blade forced a grunt from him, and then he simply listed to the side, fell to the ground, and was dead.

  “Fuck you,” I whispered hoarsely. I pulled my blade and wiped it clean on his fur before sliding it into its sheath. Then I knelt beside my mother. In her unconscious state, she’d shifted back to her human form.

  Greg, killed as a wolf, would stay a wolf in death. If humans were to find his body before Stone Moon wolves could retrieve it, they would not see a murdered human—only an extremely large wolf.

  “Mom,” I said. She was wounded, but not fatally. Greg had clawed her up and had bitten chunks from her, but she would heal. She’d heal even faster if I could get her conscious so she could shift.

  She’d been right to worry about Adam Thorne.

  I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her pale, bloody body, then stood before leaning down to lift her into my arms. She was small, and I was strong. I could carry her home without struggling to do it.

  The fight between the two packs had been vicious but quick. As I walked through the woods with my mother, Jared, dressed in whatever tattered clothing he could find, loped toward me. He was surrounded by three of his warriors and his beta Eli, and I knew the others would be patrolling through the shadows, watching for threats. None of them had left the fight without injury.

  Jared surprised me by taking my mother from me—I would have expected him to deliver that task to one of his warriors. He swept his gaze over me. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. How many did we lose?”

  He hesitated, a surprised and pleased gleam in his eyes. I already thought of his pack as my own. “No deaths,” he said. “And our injured will recover.”

  “I know of at least one death on the Stone Moon side,” I said, still angry and frightened over my mother’s attack. “Two wolves attacked her.” I gestured at my mother’s unconscious form. “I injured one of them and killed the other.”

  Again that gleam of surprise lit his eyes. “Imagine what you can do when your wolf is free. You’re already a force. You will be unstoppable.” He looked down at me. “Your mother will be fine. I feel her energy, strong and wild like her daughter’s.”

  For a few seconds he held my stare, then my mother stirred in his arms as she awakened, and he let her slide to the ground.

  “Mom,” I said, gripping her arms. “Are you okay?”

  She put her hand to the back of her head and it came away bloody. “That dude harshed my mellow,” she said.

  I sighed, then grinned. “She’s okay,” I told Jared, but he could see the worry in my face. Her words were thick and her eyes were dazed, and I knew she’d sustained some damage to her head. It was likely she had a pretty severe concussion, at the very least. Sometimes when a wolf took damage to her head, it could take her a while to pull up the energy to find her shift.

  Jared took her shoulders and turned her gently to face him. “Mrs. Silver, I’m going to help you shift, and then my beta will take you back to Shadowfield. You’ll be safe there.”

  She focused on his face. “We’re your wolves now?”

  I held my breath.

  “Yes,” he said, his voice strong and steady. “You’re my wolves now.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes, and I had to turn away to dash the water from my own. We had a pack. He’d said it, and his warriors and his beta had witnessed his words. We were Pack.

  She offered him her hand, palm up. “I accept you, Alpha.”

  He lifted her palm to his mouth, striking quickly. He marked her, creating a bond and sealing a promise that only he would ever be able to break. The alpha’s mark would only fade if his wolf were later rejected. Any wolf from any pack she came into contact with would know she was claimed and protected.

  His warriors and his beta stood quietly and stoically, with not so much as a flicker of resentment in their eyes. They might feel it, deep down, but they would not dare show it. Not in front of their alpha, anyway.

  My mother drew her hand to her mouth, unable to contain her sobs, and my own heart swelled with hers. I had not yet been officially claimed, but it was coming.

  “My house,” she said, finally. “There are those I take care of…”

  “You will sort that out tomorrow,” he told her. “When I’m sure Adam Thorne and his pack are no threat to you, you can return to your land. You can choose to stay there or move permanently to Shadowfield. We will be honored to have you.”

  I couldn’t swallow past the lump in my throat.

  She reached for my hand. “Come along, Kait,” she said, as though I were a six-year-old child.

  “Kait will see you soon,” Jared told her, but gently. “I’ll call your wolf and then you will go with my beta. I promise you will be safe.”

  “But what of my daughter?” she asked, swaying on her feet. “What if Adam comes back for her?”

  “I am about to free her wolf,” he told her quietly. “And she has a new alpha. Let him come.”

  I started shivering and couldn’t stop. I kissed my mother’s forehead, then stepped back. My heart was beating so hard and fast it made my chest hurt. My stomach was tight, my mouth dry, my head pounding. I wanted to cry and scream and run to release some of the unbearable energy building inside me.

  My wolf knew what was about to happen. The time had finally come.

  But first, my mother needed to heal.

  She groaned and once again put her hand to her head, and then Jared took control. She screamed, which was more of a forceful wheeze, and I could only stand back with my fingers over my mouth as her alpha brought her wolf.

  The jacket I’d draped over her shoulders fell to the ground and she shifted almost seamlessly. Her wounds would be nothing to her wolf. She nosed the alpha’s palm, and he placed his hand on her head as she melted into his attentions. It had been so very long. For both of us.

  She sprawled out on the ground, finally, panting slightly as her wolf’s body dealt with her injuries, and when I glanced away from her, waiting for her to heal and shift back, my stare landed on one of the warrior’s unguarded faces.

  Despite his best efforts, there was hostility in his eyes. When he saw me watching him he blanked his eyes, but it was too late to hide what he was thinking.

  “Alpha,” I said.

  Jared moved a little closer to me, making me forget, for a few seconds, what I’d been about to say. “Kait?”

  I lifted my chin. I did not want to make trouble for his wolves or cause them to be even more resentful, but I needed to make sure my mother was safe—not just from Adam Thorne, but from her own pack. “Your wolves,” I said quietly, “are going to be…upset. I can handle myself, but I’m worried about my mother.”

  “My wolves,” he said, “understand what it will mean for them if they dare to harm or disrespect your mother. Or you.”

  I wanted to believe him, but I’d been on the receiving end of his pack’s anger. “But before—”

  “Before, I was not clear in my intentions. They will cause you no harm. Unless,” he said, looking at his warriors with ice in his stare, “they wish to be cast out of their pack.”

  I gave a sharp nod. They would carry his words back to the pack, and my mother would be safe. Eventually, when they overcame their resentment and got to know her, they would love her.

  Bu
t that was going to take a while.

  When my mother returned to her human form, she was nearly completely healed. She once again donned my jacket, then pulled me to her for a hard hug. “We are Pack,” she whispered fiercely. “My darling, how I wish I could watch you finally become your wolf.”

  But things would happen that night that a mother shouldn’t witness, and we both understood that. This wouldn’t be the usual experience where a fifteen-year-old came into her shift. This was a tortured, horribly abused and twisted wolf about to be free after years of torment. It was going to be…hard. My wolf was as broken as the moon tattoo on my hand, and part of me was afraid that not even the alpha could control her.

  Finally, my mother pulled away. There had been enough delays and she knew what was waiting for me. There would be some difficulty, yes—but it wouldn’t compare to the absolutely blissful perfection achieving my shift would bring.

  I unbuckled the belt that held my demon blade and handed it to my mother. “Don’t let it out of your sight,” I said, my voice as shaky as my hands.

  “I’ll guard it with my life.” She looked at Jared. “As you will guard her.”

  He narrowed his eyes, and she dropped her gaze before turning and walking away, the silent Eli at her side. The warriors went with them, and any warriors remaining in the woods would patrol the area, keeping us safe while the alpha put all his concentration on me.

  Finally, we were alone.

  “Take off your clothes,” he told me. “You’ll want something to wear when this is over.”

  He wasn’t wrong, but I’d been away from the life for so long that getting naked in front of the alpha was a big fucking deal, at least to me. But I wouldn’t show it. I couldn’t. Hoping he didn’t notice the way I wouldn’t meet his stare or the way my hands trembled or the way I moved so slowly it was more like a striptease than a matter-of-fact necessity, I started with my boots and removed every piece of clothing I wore until I stood naked and cold before him. I wished I’d taken my hair from its customary long braid. It could have done much to preserve my foolish modesty. I’d be damned if I’d hide behind my hands. Wolves ended up naked—a lot. I needed to get used to it.

  Still, I couldn’t look at him.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, and his voice held only gentleness.

  Carefully, I slid my stare to his, and the gentleness in his voice did not extend to his eyes. They blazed hot and hungry and savage, and even if I might resist him, my feral wolf would not. Not in a million years. She would give him anything he wanted—because she wanted it too. Dammit, I wanted it.

  Suddenly, I was more afraid than excited. I did not want to lose control. I held up my hand. “Wait. Alpha, wait.”

  But he would not wait. He grabbed my shoulders and yanked me to him, and with a somewhat brutal and primal growl, he bit me. Not hard, not painfully, but he marked me as his wolf, and the very second he did, my wolf began to struggle in her chains. She began to fight like she’d always fought, but this time, it was different. This time, her alpha was there to help her.

  He stepped back, reached inside me, and began to rip the chains from her body. It was…agonizing. It was the worst thing I’d ever felt.

  It was the best thing, as well.

  I wasn’t sure I could survive it, honestly. I wasn’t. But we had to try. Oh God, it hurt. My bones broke and then reknit, blood vessels burst, my heart exploded. My shoulders dislocated, my organs shifted, and the pressure behind my eyes was so extreme that I thought they would pop from their sockets. My face twisted and elongated, my teeth lengthened and grew sharp. I was dying. Surely, I was dying.

  I opened my mouth to scream, to beg him to stop, to ask for death, but I did not scream.

  I howled.

  Suddenly, I was not the girl. I was the wolf. And everything I’d ever gone through, including the last few minutes of sheer incomprehensible hell, was worth it. It had gotten me to this moment.

  I survived, and I shifted.

  For the first time in my life, I was the wolf.

  At last.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The alpha’s claiming bite sank through my flesh and into my bloodstream, working its way through my body, my brain, and my soul before bursting outward to thread through and join with the aura that surrounded me.

  Any remnant of remaining Stone Moon alpha glow or scent swirling around me was decimated. I had not been bitten by Adam Thorne, but I had been born into his pack. My mother had been born into his pack. We did not need to be bitten to be claimed.

  But Jared was essentially “stealing” me from my old life, pack, and alpha, and he had to assert his claim through the magic of his bite, even though Adam had rejected me, causing his essence to fade so much it was nearly undetectable.

  I’d forgotten what it was like to have a place, to have a pack, to belong. I’d forgotten what it had felt like to be claimed. And I’d never really known what it was like to be my wolf.

  My wolf.

  She could not walk, not at first. She was primal and feral, her body and mind twisted by the unnatural hobbling that had held her for so long. It was as though she were newly born, though she’d lived inside me for years. She was unsure and helpless, but so very, very eager. She lay on her side panting, almost paralyzed by terror and by the new and overwhelming sights and scents of…of everything.

  But none of the scents was sharper or more intense than the scent of the alpha. She focused on him, able to smell his dominance, his calmness, his identity.

  Alpha. Mine.

  I was there, but I was second to the wolf. I crouched down deep inside, watching with awe, as the wolf slowly began to realize her freedom, her emotions, her physical self.

  She was dark inside her mind. Dark and angry and slightly psychopathic. Hunger ruled her, as did her need to run, hunt, and wallow in her new freedom. She attempted to rise but fell back to the ground, snarling and biting the air, as though it were keeping her from rising.

  The alpha lowered his face to her neck and nuzzled her before biting her, although bite was the wrong word. He simply opened his mouth and rested his teeth against her flesh, forcing her to immediately calm. He was there. She would accept his domination and his rule, and she would understand that he would take care of her. There was nothing to fear.

  That was the second my mind became less full of madness and the wolf and I became the same, only separate, sort of. I was in a different form, and I wasn’t really me, but I was. Somehow, I was.

  She stopped growling and lay still, and second by second, she grew stronger. She grew into her body as her panic subsided and at last, he padded away from her and demanded that she follow.

  He watched patiently as she, with torturous slowness, managed to shakily stand. She shook her head and lifted her face to the cold sky and howled her ecstasy, rage, and triumph. And even though the moon was not full, it was strong and bright, mysterious and ancient and beautiful, and we both felt its enormous power. We felt its pull.

  My wolf was free.

  Now if only she could run.

  You can, I encouraged. You’re not what they think. You’re not weak and you’re not mad. You just need to learn how to be a wolf. Run, kiddo. You’re free.

  She was mad, of course. She was stark raving. But I loved this wild part of myself. And I would take care of her as well as I could. No one was going to hurt her again. Not if I could help it.

  And my God, did she love her alpha.

  At first.

  There’d never been a more magnificent wolf than Jared, and we thought of him as Alpha, no matter what form he took. Neither of us could separate the two of them the way we did ourselves.

  I believed that it was because I’d thought of her, that warped, imprisoned, screaming wolf chained up inside me, as “her” for so long that I couldn’t think of her in any other way now. Maybe I would eventually.

  She walked toward the alpha, slowly, carefully, proudly. and though she didn’t take her stare from his,
she began to feel everything she’d been denied for so long. The cold air was rife with intense smells—animals and rich dirt and dried leaves and rotting vegetation and old blood. Prey scurried in the shadows and hunger roared through her, demanding her attention, but when she glanced away from him, the alpha gave a sharp bark, and she snapped her stare back to his.

  Hungry. So hungry.

  But it was not yet time to hunt. Her mind was ready—her body was not. Still, each step she took brought her closer to the alpha and made her just a little stronger. Energy began to grow, electric and huge, and it was like being jabbed with a million hot needles as her body truly woke up.

  She nearly made it to the alpha, eager to ram her nose against his fur and smell him, taste him, even, if he’d allow it, and just be close enough to touch him. Even more than food, she wanted him. When she was just a few steps from him, he turned and loped away.

  She could have been like, oh okay, I can play the “chase the alpha” game. I understood he was helping her. Teaching her. But she was a bit of a psychopath, and she got frustrated and pissed off and thought he was teasing her and deliberately withholding what she needed.

  So she didn’t follow him. Despite my warnings and admonishments, she limped in the opposite direction, growling, angry, and teetering right on the edge of a black pit of madness I could not bear to look into.

  Her rage was hair-trigger and it had just been set off. She still wanted to eat—she was ravenous. But more than that, she wanted to hurt someone. Animal or person, she didn’t care which. And yes, I was aware that my suppressed rage was her not-so-suppressed rage, but I couldn’t admit it was Kait the woman feeling such a dark desire to kill.

  I wanted to shift back to my human form but when I started to try to take control, it only made her worse. And I wasn’t sure I had the power to take that control, anyway. I tried. I failed.

  How the hell did I shift? I didn’t know. I didn’t know how to shift.