Midnight Moonrising

by K. S. Haigwood

  I so didn’t need a recap of the night before from him. I was having enough trouble forgetting about it as it was. “Alex… I’m okay. I’m just not a morning person. I enjoyed last night,” I lied. “Coffee would probably help a lot,” I suggested, then gave him a small smile.

  He blew out a breath in relief. “I made coffee.”

  “I’ll be back to my old self in no time then.”

  He grinned then walked out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

  I blew out a heavy breath of my own. “I don’t know where you are, but I’m not an actress, wolf. He’s going to know I’m not interested in him. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you need to take back over if you don’t want him dumping me by noon. I can’t flirt with him. He’s not my type.”

  “Sorry. I slept in,” she said, and then actually yawned. “Anything interesting happen?”

  “Just our chemistries clashing, that’s all.”

  “I’m up.” She sniffed. “Bacon! Yummy!”

  Alex

  What the hell had he been thinking last night? It had been too soon for sex. He’d known better. She was going to bolt!

  Two arms wrapped around his waist from behind him. “Good morning,” Mena said, and then placed a kiss in between his shoulder blades that sent a shiver all over his body.

  Turning around in her embrace, he pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head, grateful that it was possible he’d been worrying over nothing. He’d expected her to come into the kitchen and tell him she wanted to go back to Phoenix’s house or that she hadn’t meant to let things go so far last night, but definitely not this.

  “I thought we could eat breakfast then go to your house and pick up some of your clothes.”

  “I have a suitcase packed at Phoenix’s. Maybe—”

  The doorbell rang, but Alex wasn’t about to let her get away from him, especially not after she’d just mentioned Phoenix.

  After grabbing the handgun from the counter drawer beside him, he took her hand in his and pulled her to the door with him.

  “Who is it?”

  “Lexi,” a female voice said, and Alex’s brow drew down in thought. He didn’t know anyone by that name that he could recall. “I was sent here to give something to Mena. I haven’t had much sleep, so if you could open the door and let us in, that would be great.”

  Us? He looked at Mena. “Do you know her?”

  She shook her head.

  “She doesn’t know you. Leave whatever you brought on the doormat.”

  Alex heard another pair of footsteps on the concrete outside his door then Lexi talking to the person. “He won’t let us in.”

  “He’ll let us in,” a familiar voice said, and then someone was beating fist to door again.

  “It’s Roel,” Mena said, and grabbed for the doorknob, but Alex placed a hand over the knob first and pushed her behind him with the other.

  After looking through the peephole and confirming that it was indeed Roel and a familiar-looking redhead, Alex twisted the knob and opened the door about six inches. The girl blinked at him, giving him an annoyed expression as she noisily chewed her gum, clothes hangers gripped in her hand and the clothes on them slung over her shoulder and spilling down her back.

  “Thanks, cop. Phoenix would have been pissed if I’d left these on the doormat to get dirty,” Lexi said, and then pushed her way into the apartment and past him. That’s when he recognized her as the waitress from Hellhound.

  Roel came in behind her grinning from ear-to-ear, carrying a suitcase and another small bag full of what might have been clothes. He handed the bag to Mena. “Phoenix told me to tell you that this is socks and non-sexy underwear, but that the ‘other things’ would stay at his place as long as you stayed here with Rhodes.”

  Mena rolled her eyes, but took the bag from him.

  Alex’s brow popped up. “Other things?”

  She huffed, and shook her head as she led Lexi to his bedroom to find a place to put her belongings. “Don’t ask,” she said over her shoulder. “Believe me when I say that you don’t want to know what Phoenix’s idea of ‘other things’ is.”

  Roel handed the suitcase to Alex and turned to walk back out the door. “I could use a hand getting the rest out of Phoenix’s Escalade.”

  “The rest?” Alex said.

  Roel chuckled. “Aww, c’mon. You didn’t think that was all, did you? We haven’t even brought in the shoes yet.”

  “Shoes?” Alex said, and gulped.

  Roel flashed him a devilish grin. “Lots and lots of shoes.”

  THE LAST QUARTER MOON

  Chapter 45

  Roel

  After he double-checked to make sure the room number Phoenix had given him was correct, Roel tapped on the hotel room door.

  Jaxon opened up after a few seconds to let him in.

  As he walked in, he wasn’t a bit surprised that Phoenix had splurged for a suite for Jaxon and the girl—Lea, he thought Phoenix had called her, though they had never been properly introduced.

  “I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Jaxon said. “She’s in the bedroom, asleep. Touch her and I’ll make you sorry you did.”

  “Do you think Phoenix would send me here to relieve you if he thought I meant her any harm?”

  Jaxon chortled sarcastically as he headed to the door. “Who knows what the hell Phoenix is thinking? Remember what I said, asshat. I’ll break off your damn fingers and feed them to you.”

  “I wonder if your fingers would be ripped off if you did.”

  Jaxon shook his head, then closed the door behind him.

  Roel blew out a breath as he tossed the binder he’d brought with him on the coffee table then flipped to Tennessee. Was it just a coincidence that the Alpha wolf of Knoxville was named Justice? There were at least four times as many in his pack than Mena had in hers.

  He studied the page for a long moment, trying to figure out a different approach than the six of them had been using to interest the alphas, and then he rubbed his palms on his jeans and dialed the number under the physical address listed below the name.

  It only rang twice before a male voice said hello.

  “Is this Justice?”

  “That’s a possibility. Tell me who you are and how you got my number then the conversation might be continued with my introduction.”

  “Right, uh… this is Roel from the Montgomery—”

  “David said someone from your pack would call. I’m not interested—”

  “Wait! I don’t think you understand—”

  “That your pack was too stupid to tell your new Alpha that she needed to name her wolf or she would turn into a moonrising wolf? Yeah, I think I was informed well enough. Listen, if I come to Alabama, it will only be to kill your Alpha and take over her pack. If that’s what you want, I’ll be there by morning.”

  Roel sighed in defeat. “No, and thank you for your time.”

  “Sure thing. Call me back if you change your mind. Oh, and, Roel…”

  “Yeah?”

  “You have until five days after the first quarter moon to let me know the moonrising wolf is under control before I come anyway. I won’t be coming for handshakes or to save her. Do you understand?”

  “Ye—yes, sir,” Roel stuttered.

  The call dropped, and Roel fell back against the backrest of the hotel room chair.

  He was just about to call Phoenix with the awesome news, when the bedroom door of the suite opened and Lea stood in the doorway, her huge bright blue eyes staring at him.

  His heart did a little quick beating at the sight of her. Of course, he’d seen her before, but he had either been too consumed by other issues or never really paid her much attention. She was beautiful. Her hair was such a deep shade of brunette it looked like a rich chestnut in the dim lighting of the room, and the shiny, wavy locks hung almost to her waist.

  Jaxon’s threat thundered in his mind as his eyes roamed over the curves of her body, and he quickly aver
ted his gaze from her, back to the open binder in front of him.

  “Jaxon will be back in a little while. I relieved him so he could go take care of his nutritional needs.”

  “Do you mind if I sit with you?” she asked.

  Sit with me? Roel thought. As in, with me in the chair or on my lap?

  His confusion must have been written all over his face, because she smiled and pointed to the sofa at the right of the chair he’d been sitting in. “I meant that I would sit on the sofa. You can stay there. Jaxon seems to think I’ll get over what I’m going through with sleep, so he has been making me stay in bed. I’m not tired.”

  “Yes, of course!” he said quickly, and then offered her the sofa with the gesture of his hand. “Please… you are welcome to sit on me—” his eyes slammed shut as embarrassment flooded up his neck and into his cheeks. He took a deep breath and organized the way the words needed to come out before he opened his mouth again. “Join me, please, Lea.”

  Her smile was small, but it was there, and it appeared she wasn’t going to run back into the bedroom, calling him names as she went, so he guessed he hadn’t totally screwed up.

  “Thank you,” she said as she sat down. He sat back down in the chair, but he was still a little humiliated over what he’d said to her, so he focused on the pages in front of him.

  “What is that?” she said.

  Glancing up at her then back to the binder, he came to the conclusion that telling her wouldn’t hurt anything. She was, after all, Phoenix’s PA; she would probably be helping him with all of this if she didn’t have troubles of her own. That reminded him where they were and that she probably didn’t need anything else to worry about. Maybe he shouldn’t say anything.

  “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. Wolf business isn’t any business of mine. I was only trying to make conversation,” she said, then seemed to grow shy, shrinking in on herself, as if she wasn’t important enough for anyone to tell her anything about what was going on.

  So she wanted to talk, he thought, and wondered if maybe she’d wanted to talk to someone all along and nobody had cared to listen. “How about if we play Question for Question? You ask a question and I’ll answer it, and then it’s my turn to ask you a question.”

  She looked befuddled by his suggestion. “What do you want to know?”

  Roel shrugged as he smiled. “Stuff… about you.”

  “Pfft!” She rolled her eyes away from him, to her hands folded loosely on her lap, but she was smiling innocently, and that blush on her cheeks gave her pale complexion just the perfect amount of color. It was so damn cute. “I’m not interesting at all.”

  “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? I would say that I am almost certain you’re wrong, but it would be rude of me to tell a lady she is wrong, now wouldn’t it?”

  She shook her head a little, but kept her eyes on her fingers as she rubbed them. “I wouldn’t think you were being rude if you said that.”

  “Okay, then, you are wrong until you prove me wrong,” he said, and smiled when she did. She appeared to be relaxing a little, so he decided to jump right into their game. “You wanted to know what the binder is, right?”

  She gave the book a long look and nodded. “Yeah. We can start there.”

  “It’s one of eight. Brad’s wife is the bookkeeper for our pack, and the binders contain information on every other pack in the United States. There are over three-hundred packs in the US alone. I have no clue how many there are in the world, so you can skip that question. But if you really want to know, I can have Heather find out for you.”

  “Wow! There aren’t nearly as many vampire clans here.”

  “That may be because there are a lot more vampires in one clan than there are shifters in a pack. We are almost as educated on the clans here as we are the packs. There are only two High Vampires here in Alabama, and there are five Alpha Pack Leaders, though the numbers of vampires and shifters are about the same in this state.”

  “Do you think that means that the vampires are more organized than—?”

  “Nuh-uh-uh.” Roel shook his index finger back and forth. “It’s my turn.”

  She giggled then clapped a hand over her mouth.

  He stared at her a second with his mouth open, stunned by the angelic laugh she had. “Do that again.”

  Blinking in confusion, she lowered her hand. “Do what again?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. There was no way she was ignorant to the fact that she was this amazing. Hadn’t anybody ever told her? Surely she’d had boyfriends. Of course he knew that she was a vampire’s assistant, but she had to have dated at least one of them or maybe humans before she’d met Phoenix. Right?

  “Laugh,” he said.

  “Whatever for?” And now she sounded defensive, almost as if he’d insulted her.

  “Never mind,” he said, but made a mental note to try to get her to do it again without bluntly asking her to do it. People sounded like idiots when they laughed for no reason, though he didn’t think this girl could ever sound like an idiot. “Back to my turn,” he said, and acted like he was actually thinking of a question, though he’d known what he wanted to ask her before he even suggested they play the game. “Why did Jaxon bring you to a hotel?”

  “I killed one of Phoenix’s vampires.”

  Blink-blink-blink-blink.

  “Uh… Why would you—”

  She put up her hand and moved her index finger back and forth. Roel frowned and leaned back in his chair with a loud huff. How could she drop something like that on him and not elaborate?

  She grinned, but there was no laughing this time.

  “How old are you?” she said.

  He smirked. “Thirty-one.”

  Disbelief showed on her pretty face. “Unless you were bitten in the last three years, that’s a lie. I know shifters are immortal.”

  “Alright, alright, I’ll be a hundred-twenty-seven next month, if I live that long,” he muttered the last part under his breath.

  “What day in February?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “It’s my turn.”

  “Ugh! Okay. Hurry up.”

  He chuckled. “Why did you kill one of Phoenix’s vampires?”

  “I figured you would ask that,” she said, and her shoulders slumped.

  “We can stop. I don’t want to, but we can if you don’t want to talk about it.”

  It was clear she realized that she would get no more answers out of him if they stopped playing, so she shook her head. “No, I’ll talk about it.

  He grinned. “Good, because I’m dying to know what it takes to upset you enough to kill someone. And you must have badass skills. I’ve been killing them for years. It’s not that easy, and I’m immortal. You’re just a human.”

  Her eyes became serious. “A vampire’s assistant isn’t as weak as humans are. We drink their blood to prolong our lifespan. It makes us stronger, too. Not nearly as strong as a vampire, but we certainly have more strength than humans do.”

  “I wasn’t trying to offend you, Lea.”

  She nodded. “I know. You really didn’t. I just gave up that life a long time ago. I don’t consider myself human anymore. I’m a VA.”

  Roel laughed. “A VA? C’mon, we need to think up a cooler name for you if you’re not human. A VA sounds too weak for someone who can take down a vampire.”

  She laughed again. She laughed again!

  “What do you suggest I call myself?”

  “I’ll think about it and we’ll throw superhero names back and forth after we finish Q for Q. That okay?”

  Lea beamed at him. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  He sniggered. “Okay, VA, why did you kill a vampire?”

  She lost her smile. “My brother saw me when I was getting into my car at the supermarket—”

  “You have a brother?”

  She inhaled deeply as her hand came up, but before she could start shaking that finger, Roel told her to go on.

>   “I ignored him when he shouted my name, and then I hurriedly fled the parking lot, hoping I could lose him before I got to Phoenix’s compound. I thought I had lost him, but I guess he slipped into the gate before it closed fully. I was so shaken that I honestly wasn’t paying that close attention. Phoenix has killed others for less, but he didn’t even chastise me. I guess he thought me losing my brother was punishment enough.

  “I never thought I would see him again. You see, I, uh… something happened to me when I was seventeen and my brother went to prison for taking revenge on the guys who hurt me. He was the only one who believed me and he went to prison for making them pay. I blamed myself. Even my parents blamed me; they said I had probably asked for it or provoked them, if it even happened at all. So I ran away from Indiana. Phoenix found me, homeless, when I was twenty and took me in. I honestly never expected to see him again,” she pleaded, like Roel wouldn’t understand or believe her, either. He just watched her intently and waited for her to finish, but inside—inside, his blood was boiling at the thought of anyone hurting her. “And when I heard him calling my name at the market, I knew I had to get away. There was no way I could explain the years I haven’t aged. I should look like I am in my early thirties instead of my early twenties.

  “I was in my room trying to calm down and think about what to tell Phoenix, since I had lied to him and told him that I had no family, when I heard the shouting from the living room. Santino had already ripped his throat out by the time I got to them. He was close to killing me, too, but Jaxon came in just before he had the chance.” She stared at her trembling hands as she finished. “I’ve thought about nothing except different ways I could kill him since that night.”

  Roel opened his mouth to ask how she’d done it, and then remembered it was her turn to ask him a question and he would only have to wait anyway. Instead, he made a statement. “After hearing that story, I only have one thing to say.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That if those fuckers who hurt you are still alive, they won’t be after I find them.”