By the Light of the Moon

by By the Light of the Moon (lit)

  What in the hell...?

  Only the recent arrivals remained as wolves.

  Sensing no animosity, Harley ignored the silver one and crouched beside Cole. She hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the shirt he'd stripped off earlier and pressed it to the still oozing wound.

  Cole flinched, his face unreadable.

  The last few moments sank in, replaying themselves in her mind. Cole...? And wolves?

  She glanced over her shoulder at the silver one. His eyes were still fixed on the branch at her feet. She shook her head. She couldn't have seen it. People couldn't turn into wolves. Not in real life. There had to be a rational, objective explanation. Right?

  Pushing to her feet, she backed away. This was fucking insane.

  "Harley." Cole tried to stand, but his knees buckled. "Wait."

  She met his gaze briefly, then fled.

  * * * *

  Cole stared after her, the pain radiating down his back and chest stealing his breath. "Harley," he shouted.

  Dash knelt beside him. "She'll be fine."

  Cole dropped his head, wincing when his brother peeled back the shirt to examine the wound. "She wasn't supposed to find out like this...."

  "Which is why you should have told her."

  Cole snorted. "Aren't we a little old for I told you so?" Dash probed at his wound and he jerked away. "Do you mind? That fucking hurts."

  "It needs to be stitched."

  "I need to find Harley."

  "Why, so you can bleed all over her? Go to the infirmary. I'll make sure she's fine, okay? I won't touch her," Dash promised at Cole's doubtful look.

  Not liking it, but knowing he'd be good for nothing if he didn't get stitched up, Cole allowed Dash to help him to his feet. The ones who arrived with Dash led the others away. Cole felt some small measure of satisfaction seeing the wounds he inflicted on the small faction's leader. If he had so much as breathed on Harley....

  "She's safe," Dash reminded him, damn near reading Cole's mind.

  But she might not have been if Dash hadn't shown up. He grabbed his brother's arm. When Dash turned around, Cole offered his hand. "Thanks."

  Dash gripped his hand, his grin widening. "Any time."

  * * * *

  The resort's doctor had just finished stitching him up when Dash strolled in.

  "She's in your bungalow."

  Cole didn't know whether to be relieved or not. "She is? I though she would have been halfway to the airport by now."

  Dash leaned back against the counter. "She's not your mother, Cole."

  Thank God for that. Still, that didn't mean Harley would be any more accepting of his kind than his mother. "You saw the look on her face."

  Dash shot him a well, duh look. "You shifted right in front of her."

  "What choice did I have?"

  "None, but she had no warning, nothing to make her think for a second you are what you are. She just needs time to process it all."

  Cole began to cross his arms, winced as the topical anesthetic was already wearing off. "And you think she's just hanging out in there thinking?"

  "Most likely. She's a journalist. She's probably trying to look at it from all the objective angles."

  "Or she's packing." Chances were she already had.

  "You won't know if you don't go to her."

  "So she can tell me how much of a freak I am?" That he sure as hell couldn't handle.

  "Fine, have it your way. Sit here and throw her away. I know of someone who'd be more than happy to take her off your hands."

  "If you wanted a mate, you'd have one already."

  "Maybe I just haven't met a woman who would embrace the change." Something in Dash's casual shrug felt off.

  "Somehow I don't think that's it."

  Dash stiffened, his eyes darkened enough to make Cole suspect he had hit on a touchy subject. "We're not talking about me." Dash glanced at Cole. "But Harley would make a good, strong mate I think."

  Cole growled and sidestepped Dash. "Don't go near her."

  Dash shoved him back a step. "Then stop being a pussy and go talk to her."

  He knew Dash was right as his brother strode away, yet it took him almost an hour to build up the nerve.

  And it fizzled out on him the second he walked into the bungalow.

  * * * *

  Harley tensed as the terrace door slid open behind her. She wanted to turn around, see for herself that it was in fact Cole, but a fear she didn't understand kept her rooted in place. She wanted to believe she had imagined that scene in the woods, but she knew she hadn't. It would have been easier to deal with if she had, could have chalked it up to stress or something.

  But Harley hadn't imagined it. The more she replayed the details in her mind, the more convinced she became. Yet... how was it possible?

  "Is it a good sign you're not halfway home already?"

  Hearing his voice soothed her much more than she would have believed. He stepped up beside her and instead of moving away from him, Harley inched closer. After a long moment she found enough courage to look him in the eye.

  Cautious brown eyes regarded her the way he might a timid child. "On a scale of one to ten, exactly how freaked out are you?"

  Harley mulled it over. "Eleven."

  "Very reassuring," he teased. Tight lines near his eyes showed his uncertainty.

  "So," she prompted.

  Cole nodded in understanding. "Where would you like me to start?"

  "Somewhere between A and Werewolf would be good. And on the off chance the encyclopedia definition might be out of date, feel free to direct me to a website with the proper information."

  "My father was a werewolf. My mother wasn't. She left when I was three after a full moon triggered my first shift."

  "But there was a full moon last night. Did you...?"

  Cole shook his head. "Most times I'm able to control it."

  "When can't you?"

  "When I'm very pissed."

  "Does that happen often?"

  A pained frown crossed his face. "I'd never hurt you if that's what you think."

  Harley reached for him. Not only to reassure him she could handle this, but because she needed to know, to feel for herself that Cole was still very much himself.

  Strong arms held her tight as she closed her eyes and buried her face against his neck. "You could have told me before now."

  Cole snorted. "If I had, you would have locked me out of your apartment."

  Harley tipped her head up. "Not if you did your shifting thing."

  "Right," he mocked. "Then I would've had to catch you before you ran out of the apartment and ended up struck by a taxi because you didn't watch where you were going."

  Given the fact that she had run just a short time ago, she couldn't argue his logic. "So the ones who attacked us, they wanted to hurt Dash?"

  "The black and gray one was Reginald's brother. Seems he was a little pissed Dash removed Reginald from the island for stirring up trouble."

  "I guess Mac was right about his vibe this time." Cole stiffened, and Harley added, "I'm not writing a story about this place, or any of you."

  He caught her chin in his palm. "Are you okay with this, okay with what I am?"

  Harley smiled up at him. "It'll take some getting used to seeing as how I hadn't planned on falling on love with a werewolf." The second the words left her mouth, Harley tensed.

  Cole lips parted in a satisfied grin right before his mouth swooped down to capture hers. The fierce possession behind the kiss banished any remaining doubts about him... about them.

  When they pulled back, Cole's smile burrowed deep into her heart. "I hadn't planned on falling in love with you either." He gently tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'm glad we came here."

  Harley swallowed past the tightness in her throat. "Me, too." Pressing a kiss to his jaw, she buried her face against his neck. Even in her wildest dreams, she hadn't imagined ending up with Cole in quite this way.

  Curious, she
glanced up at him. "So how does someone become a werewolf anyway?"

  "Either by birth, or...." He angled his face away from her.

  "Or," she prompted.

  Hopeful brown eyes turned back to her. "By choice."

  "Oh." A hundred more questions trampled through her brain. Some that would no doubt require lengthy explanations, but those could wait for now. "So your dad's a werewolf, too, right?"

  "Yup."

  She somehow couldn't picture Cole's bookish father trotting through the woods. "Huh. Any other secrets I should know about? Like a little woman tucked away in a den somewhere with wolf cubs?"

  Cole grinned. "Not quite. But I do have an older brother."

  "I thought it was just you and your dad?"

  "It was, for the last fifteen years." He shrugged. "Turns out my brother might not be such an ass after all."

  "Will I get to meet him?"

  His lips curved in a secretive smile. "I think that can be arranged."

  "Do you werewolf types do anything else other than turn into wolves?" If he told her he'd live forever, she'd be pissed.

  One golden brow winged upward. "Not really. Why? What else would you have me to do? Fly?"

  Harley shrugged, then nodded pointedly inside at the bed. A naughty smile tugged at the corners of her mouth "So do I get to put a leash on you?"

  His eyes flashed and he leaned forward. "Only when the moon is full." He skimmed his lips across hers. "And only if I get to return the favor."

  "There's still a full moon tonight, right?" Pressed from shoulder to thigh, Harley's body responded to Cole. She reached out to catch his mouth as it passed. His fingers tunneled into her hair as he cupped the back of her neck and deepened the kiss.

  With heated precision, Cole swept his mouth back and forth across hers, slowing the momentum until every cell hummed and burned for him.

  Werewolf and all.

  The End