Cascades of Moonlight (The Parker Harris Series: Book #1)

by Amy McClung

  My car screeched as I slammed on the brakes. Once I straightened from the skid, I pulled to the side of the road to check on the boy bleeding in the street. He put his hand up, “Stay away from me! Please, I don’t want to hurt you. Don’t come near me! I’m sick.”

  I waved the metaphorical white flag and said “I know what you are. I'm not afraid. I saw you shift back.”

  He appeared petrified. He was bleeding pretty badly, so I took off my jacket and pressed it against his wound. Through coughs and rapid breaths, he managed to sputter out, “How can you not be afraid of me?”

  I kept tending to his wound and finally said, “I'm one too. For two years now.”

  He looked dumbfounded and said, “I’ve never met another wolf, other than the one that changed me and I never met the human side.”

  He had cringed in pain momentarily before he continued, “I’ve been like this for a year now. When I changed the first time, I had to leave my life… my family…everything behind. Do you live on your own too?”

  I shook my head 'no.' I couldn’t imagine leaving everyone I love, living on the run. That seemed to be what everyone does though, Quinn did the same thing. Does that make me selfish? Am I putting my loved ones in danger?

  “I was afraid they would figure out what I was and be terrified of me or try to kill me, so I've been living in the woods for a while. Today, I ran into a black bear that wasn’t too fond of me being in his territory. I thought I was going to die here in the road and then you came along.”

  I grinned as I realized he didn't know much more about his wolf side than I did about mine. “This is the first time you've been hurt since you became a wolf, isn’t it?” He looked at me oddly and nodded. I pulled away my jacket and showed him the wound. It had stopped bleeding and had begun to heal.

  “What the…” he spouted.

  I chortled, “That’s one advantage of being a wolf, rapid healing. You still feel pain and there will be some soreness, but you'll be back to normal in no time.”

  He tried to sit up so I took his hand and helped him get on his feet. He thanked me and then realized he was naked and went red in the face. He covered himself with his hands. I handed him my jacket to cover up, then helped him to my car and told him I would take him somewhere safe.

  “I’m Parker, what's your name?” I asked as I extended my hand to him.

  He shook my hand, “I’m William, uh Will. You know I thought it was weird when I was bitten and my wound healed quickly, but I felt so sick that I assumed more time passed than I had realized. I had a high fever for a few days. Damn, I still can’t believe I met another wolf. How old are you? I’m sixteen.”

  That made me a little sad, knowing what he had been through in the past year, “I’m seventeen and I’ve been a wolf for two years, so I guess that means we were both turned at fifteen. Do you remember what happened to you?” I told him my story about the injured wolf to make him feel comfortable with telling me his; I guess it worked.

  “I was at the park with my little sister. She was five and we were playing hide and seek. It was my turn to hide so she was coming to find me. I heard her screaming my name and thought it was a ploy to get me to come out. Then, it sounded terrifying and I took off running toward her. I came upon her in the woods, clinging to a tree, where there was a wolf directly across from her. The wolf growled as he leaned back against his hind legs. I stepped in front of her just as he pounced and she took off running. My parents showed up and took me to the hospital. I was there for a few days and they let me go home and told me I’d be fine. The next few days the wound began to heal over, but I ran a dangerously high fever. I didn’t tell my parents because I didn’t want to go back to the hospital. I’m not a big fan of doctors. The first full moon hit and I realized I was anything but fine. After my first shifting experience was over, I packed a bag and left home. I told my sister goodbye and left a note for my parents.”

  Wow. Everyone’s story sounds so much better than mine. Will’s a hero, Quinn was a victim, and I was just a dummy that walked up to a bleeding wolf.

  “Have you really been sleeping in the woods?” I asked as I handed him a bottle of water from the basket.

  “Yeah, I found a cave not far from where we met and I stay there. It’s not so bad, I always liked camping.” He said it as though he was trying to look at the glass half full side of being homeless.

  My parents were out of town for the night so I told Will he could stay on the couch for tonight and we would figure something out after that. He couldn’t live in the woods any longer, it just wouldn’t be right.

  First, I made him a real meal. He had been scrounging for food apparently and it had been a long time since he had a home cooked meal. One of my famous recipes is Taco Delight; I came up with it myself. It has rice, beef, beans and corn. It's very filling and one can or jar of each ingredient makes a huge helping. Will wolfed it down, no pun intended. He chased it with the entire two-liter of soda that I had bought. I grabbed some sheets and pillows to make up the couch and then sat down with him for a bit.

  In the next few hours, I learned a lot about my new house guest and friend. Will had always been very close to his sister, he practically raised her. She was an 'oops baby' meaning she wasn't planned which is why they're ten years apart in age. His parents worked long hours and hardly spent time with either of them, so they only had each other. He said leaving her with them was the hardest thing he'd ever done because he knew she would be ignored. However, he would rather have that happen than to take the chance of hurting her if he couldn’t control himself. He said he went back to the house every now and then to watch and make sure she is okay and to grab a few things that wouldn’t be missed. He looked so sad when he talked about her. You could tell she meant the world to him.

  In the middle of our talk, the phone rang and it was Jackie asking if she could still come over on Sunday. I told her yes and that I would see her at one, which meant I needed to get Will out of here before then or think of something to say. After all, it would be hard to explain to Jackie why I let a strange boy spend the night without explaining the whole wolf aspect. We know now I'm not ready to do that after my hissy fit with Quinn; the one that was a bit humiliating to think about now.

  After I had hung up the phone with Jackie, we stayed up most of the night talking about our experiences as wolves. It was so nice to have someone who understood what had been through. One thing Will has experienced as a wolf that I haven’t, is that he fed on animals when turned.

  Will explained where his survival skills came from. "I used to hunt with my dad. During my shift, I used those skills to sneak up on deer and other animals. I leave them in a cave for when I change back and can eat it with my wolf teeth, which can tear at the meat easier."

  I cringed, "I'm sorry that's too gross to even think about. Chicken on the bone makes me cringe. I certainly don’t want a deer a la bullet hole with blood and guts de jour. Eww, grody to the max for real." It was hard to hold back my disgust, but it tickled Will and it seemed he needed a good laugh.

  Will tired out before I did, probably from his body working extra hard today to heal his wounds. He was fighting sleep, trying to hide the yawning, assuring me he was fine and wanted to talk more. I made a promise that we would get to know each other more over breakfast and I left him on the couch retiring to my room to lie down.

  Once in my room, my phone rang. It was really late and it startled me. It was Quinn. I hesitated to answer, at first. “Hello,” I said nervously.

  Quinn’s voice was sad and quiet, “Hey Hon, I’m sorry to call so late. I can’t stop thinking about earlier and I wanted to call and check on you and see if we were okay.”

  I didn’t say anything until I heard him sigh on the other end of the line. “We're good Quinn. Look, I'm sorry about today. I'm not ready to face Jackie with my secret. It wasn’t your fault; it’s something I’ve been
struggling with a lot. I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings by leaving so abruptly.”

  It was obvious that's exactly what I did though, hurt his feelings, I hoped he could forgive me for it. “It’s okay, I was worried that I made you mad and that wasn't my intention.” Quinn went on. “Could we maybe see each other tomorrow?”

  "Jackie's coming over tomorrow to hang out so...rain check?"

  "Sure. As long as I know you still want to talk, I can wait. Goodnight." I put the phone on my nightstand and rolled over. On my pillow, there was a white rose with a piece of paper that said Please forgive me.-Love Quinn. Love? LOVE? I couldn’t help the smile that crept over my face. I cradled the piece of paper in my hand and fell asleep.

  The next morning, I woke up and stretched my arms and my whole body cracked. As I stretched, my hand touched the white rose Quinn had left. Lifting it from the pillow, I brought it up to my nose and savored the sweet smell. The fact that Quinn made such a romantic gesture made me smile. It also kind of gave me the shivers that he could come into my bedroom at any time, but I was looking at the positive side of the gesture. When I went downstairs and saw Will on the couch, I jumped. I had forgotten all about him being here. He slept peacefully and looked kind of cute actually.

  Quietly, I crept past him and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for us. The aroma must have woken him up. He stumbled into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. “Something smells fantastic. Beautiful and a great cook? I'm lucky you found me.” He grinned and it made me feel a bit uncomfortable and a bit flustered. He walked over and, as I turned to look at him, he leaned down and kissed me. I pulled back and he smiled, “Sorry was that too forward? I've never met anyone like you and you're so stunning…” He had brushed a hair behind my ear a moment before I stepped back from his reach. And who uses the word stunning?

  “It’s not that it wasn’t nice, and under other circumstances I would've really enjoyed it…”

  He looked confused, “I sense a ‘but’ coming on…”

  I continued, “But…I'm sort of seeing someone at the moment…I think.”

  He snickered, “Um okay, well if you find out that you aren’t actually seeing someone, I hope I'll be the first to know.” He went to sit back down and I tried to fight the grin from forming on my face. This would only happen to me. Boys never knew I existed before and now I have two gorgeous men competing for my attention. Poor, poor, pitiful me.

  He didn’t have clothes, so I had given him some shorts of my dad’s to sleep in. He didn’t want a shirt because of our wolf temperature. When I'm alone, I wear as little as possible too. It was a bit uncomfortable sitting at the table with a half naked man, especially one that is so well sculpted. Will has short brown hair and strikingly deep brown eyes and he is about six foot and, as I said, well sculpted. The shorts were riding low on him to where you could see the cut on either side of his waist that forms a V as it goes right down to…ahem. So, back to breakfast; fixing his plate with bacon, eggs and toast, I sat it in front of him and he literally dove into it. It was sad to witness his famished state.

  In the middle of breakfast, the doorbell rang and I wiped my mouth, of both food and drool at this point. I’m a single woman, sue me. I set my fork down and excused myself to get the door. It was too early for Jackie. I had no clue who I’d find there. Behind the door was… “Quinn, what are you doing here?”

  That beautiful smile of his appeared and he held out a box of pastries and a cup of coffee. “I don’t cook, but I can bring take-out. I wanted to surprise you this morning before Jackie got here, didn’t want to interrupt girl time.” He put his nose in the air and took a big whiff and smiled. “Guess I'm too late. You've already been busy making breakfast, is there enough to share? It smells fantastic.”

  Before I could answer, he stepped into the house and kissed me on the cheek. I was too shocked to say anything. He walked toward the kitchen and then I remembered Will.

  He stopped just inside the kitchen doorway. I could tell he smelled what he was and the fact that Will was practically naked didn’t help. Quinn turned back and looked at me in my robe and looked at Will in his shorts and bare chest. I said the first thing that came to mind, “It’s not what you think…he’s only sixteen.” Well, that was good, Parker. First that doesn’t really make sense seeing as how we're only a year apart and Quinn and I have sixty years between us, and now I hurt Will’s feelings. I smacked my forehead and started over. “Ok, let me rephrase that somewhat. I found Will when I was driving home yesterday. He was hurt and I stopped to help him. He needed a place to stay, so I let him stay with me. He’s a werewolf like I am, but you probably already figured that out.”

  Will jumped up knocking the chair backwards, “I thought no one knew what you were!”

  I walked over to him, to get between him and Quinn. “Quinn figured out what I was, because he smelled it on me. He's a vampire.”

  Will backed up, almost falling over the chair, and proceeded to freak out, “What the hell? Vampire? Are you insane?”

  I laughed and he looked more freaked out. “Vampires exist, just like Werewolves do. Have you done any research on what is going on with you?”

  He shook his head; I should've guessed being that he has been living in a cave he wouldn’t exactly have internet access. So, I went over and took his hand and led him up to my bedroom. I sat him down at the computer and showed him where I had kept notes on what I had found were truths versus myth.

  Quinn hunched over the table with a harsh look on his face and he didn’t even turn to face me before he lectured me about Will. “He spent the night here? With you? Alone? Where are your parents? What were you thinking bringing a werewolf to stay here?” I had come to stand in front of him, forcing him to look at me as he spoke.

  I slammed my cup down and shouted. “Can I answer one question at a time, please?” My cup shattered and cut my palm. Quinn was beside me in an instant and grabbed my hand; my first instinct was to pull back.

  He calmly stated, “I’m not going to drink your blood, Parker. I’m checking your hand.” It was clear my actions hurt his feelings. He covered it with a towel and I apologized. Then, to make up for today and yesterday and any other time I have hurt him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

  His lips felt wonderful on mine; I'd missed kissing him. At first it was so light and sweet, it became more passionate as he wove his fingers through my hair and pulled me tighter against him. His body was cold, but his lips were the perfect temperature against mine. His hands moved from my hair to the small of my back and my heart felt like it would explode with the feelings stirring inside me.

  We separated at last and he smiled and apologized for acting crazy about Will. “I found your rose and note. Thank you, that was very sweet,” I said as I brushed his hair out of his face. “You don’t have to be jealous of Will. I just need a friend that understands what I am going through. I’ve never met another werewolf before and he left his whole family behind and has been living in the woods all by himself. I only wanted to help him out.”

  Quinn let go of me without saying anything and walked upstairs. He came back with Will. Will looked a bit scared of Quinn, which was understandable since he just found out that vampires were real. We all sat down and talked and shared our stories and it seemed like all was going well. Then there was a knock on the door.

  I was a bit hesitant leaving the boys alone, but it was my house so I went to answer the door. “Jackie, you're early!” I exclaimed.

  Jackie walked in, saw Quinn and Will and turned back to me with a big grin on her face, “Am I interrupting something?” she asked. I rolled my eyes and led her into the living room. I introduced her to Will and told her that it was an old friend of Quinn’s that was in town to see him. They both gave me odd looks, but it would be kind of hard to explain that two new guys moved to our small town in the same year. Our population mainly g
oes up when babies are born.

  Quinn knew I needed time alone with Jackie so he said that he and Will were going to go catch up on old times. Quinn had his hand on Will’s neck, leading him to the door. Will looked scared stiff so I walked them outside and told him that he could trust Quinn and nothing would happen to him. I gave Quinn a look to let him know that he better not do anything to Will or he’d answer to me. He seemed to get the point. He smiled, leaned over and gave me a big smooch as Will watched. Marking his territory, immature, but I'm not complaining.

  Jackie eagerly waited for me to come back in. She had a crazy idea that I wanted to date both Will and Quinn and that I got caught and made up some stupid lie to cover it up. She watched too many soap operas. I explained to her how I met Will. Well, I told her that Quinn came over this morning and had Will with him and asked me if he could stay on my couch so Quinn could get his place ready for company. I left out the werewolf part, the finding him in the street and the kiss part. That part I'm going to leave out of all stories I tell, especially to Quinn. She didn’t buy it, I could tell. This is getting harder and harder. I loathe lying to my best friend.

  Chapter Seven