New Moon

by Lisa Kessler

  It was another reason my father raised me to believe they were lesser. Any people forced to leave their lives in the hands of fate, instincts overriding their minds, were closer to animals than men.

  But Isabelle was challenging everything I’d ever believed about wolves. She was fighting the instinct, and why wouldn’t she? What kind of twisted fate would tie her to me?

  I had disparaged wolves my entire life. Because Operation Moonlight had failed when I was just a boy, my father raised me to believe wolves were below us. Weak.

  But Isabelle was far from weak. I didn’t deserve to be so close to her.

  Her mother’s note kept taunting me. Isabelle will be your salvation.

  At what cost?

  I stared out the window into the darkness. Isabelle’s mother had told me to follow my heart, but I wasn’t sure I had one anymore.

  “Penny for your thoughts.”

  I turned at the sound of her voice, only to find Isabelle’s cheeks flushed with color, her eyes shining. God, she took my breath away.

  She was also buzzed. The last time I drank was the night I discovered my father had ordered Grace to be eliminated. Gareth Takoda from Adam’s Pack had nearly killed me that night. I hadn’t imbibed since.

  “Trying to come up with an action plan.” My first lie to her. My gut twisted.

  “I don’t believe you.” She shook her head, her smile fading. “I thought I was on the short list of people you haven’t lied to.”

  “That list is always growing.” I looked out the window.

  Her warm hand covered mine. “Why are you being an asshole? My sister found her mate, and they were a team.”

  I sighed and faced her again. “Fate chose a good man for your sister. Why would it tie you to this legacy? I have nothing to offer you.”

  “Bullshit. Stop with the fucking lies.” She pushed my shoulder.

  I didn’t budge, catching her wrist. “I’m not the only one coveting the truth. You must’ve known the second you touched me what it meant, but you didn’t say a word.”

  A crease formed on her brow, fire in her eyes. “What was I supposed to say, Sebastian? ‘Oh, instead of killing you, I’ll just forget you and your father were paying the guy who had my sister bitten—let’s get married.’ Would that make you happy?”

  “Nothing makes me happy, Isabelle. I endure. That’s my life.”

  She jerked her hand free from my grasp. “You really want to know why I’m still here? Because I thought I saw the real you in my car. You smiled, and it wasn’t the slick, I’m-the-smartest-guy-in-the-room grin, but an honest peek behind that deadly mask you wear. And that guy, that Sebastian, he’s why I’m here.”

  Her pulse raced in my ears; perhaps the alcohol had her spilling more truth than she intended. Her voice fell to a soft whisper. “My wolf saved your life, but when you ran out to my car and asked me not to go…this isn’t instinct. It’s all stupid me.”

  She crossed her arms, leaning back in the seat and closing her eyes. I watched her, baffled and unsure what to say. Since when was I left speechless? This woman saw through my carefully crafted facade, and she still wanted to help me. She was the first person to ever offer me compassion over losing my mother.

  I wasn’t sure how to handle any of it.

  Everything about her had me off balance. Dangerous, considering I was about to face my father.

  I reclined my seat level with hers and leaned in close to her ear. “Thank you for staying.”

  She didn’t open her eyes, but her lips twitched with a hint of a smile, and somewhere in the shadows of my soul, a light flickered.

  …

  A werewolf waiting party heralded our arrival in Reno. The Alpha and my half sister were there with their little boy, Malcolm, drowsy in his mother’s arms. Isabelle’s sister, Raven, and her mate, Luke, were also there. Raven rushed forward to hug Isabelle.

  No such warm embraces for me.

  Adam stepped up into my face. “Give me one reason to believe you’re willing to help bring our daughter home.”

  Isabelle pulled away from her sister, but I stayed focused on the Alpha. “She has Severino blood in her veins.”

  He ground his teeth. “Then why wouldn’t you think she belongs with Antonio Severino?”

  I answered without hesitation. “No child should have to live with my father.”

  “It might be a better plan to take you back to the ranch and negotiate a swap—you for my daughter.”

  I shook my head. “My father will suggest you kill me. He already has what he wants.”

  “You’re full of shit.” Adam frowned. “You’re his heir.”

  “He has Madeleine. I’m expendable now.”

  Adam searched my eyes, but for once, I was telling him the truth.

  He cursed under his breath as Isabelle came closer to me. It was probably just in my head, but having her close soothed me somehow.

  She looked at Adam. “For what it’s worth, I’m coming along, too. We’ll bring her home.”

  Adam’s gaze snapped to Isabelle, and my fists tightened at my sides.

  “Raven tells me you’re a bounty hunter?”

  “I’m also a PI. I’ve helped families find missing persons.” She glanced my way. “Sebastian’s intentions in this situation are to get your daughter away from Nero.”

  Adam shook his head. “Your wolf is blinding you. I know him better than you do.” The Alpha met my eyes. “You’re going to have to choose a side in this, Sebastian. I need to know it won’t be your father’s.”

  “Life isn’t so black-and-white.” I looked past him to Lana. “But one way or another, I will get Madeleine home to her mother.”

  Adam stepped into my line of vision, blocking Lana behind him. “I’ll bring my daughter home. Just get me inside.”

  If only it could be that simple. I shook my head. “You won’t be able to muscle your way through Nero. I grew up there. I’m your best hope for a happy ending.”

  “Then I’m fucked.” Adam narrowed his eyes. “I need to talk to you…alone.”

  We walked to the next gate, far enough that the other wolves wouldn’t hear us. We stood face-to-face, leaders from opposite sides of the game. Adam was about my height, with bright green eyes.

  He was younger than me, but ascending to Alpha had aged him. I could see it around his eyes and in his temperament. The Adam Sloan I met when I’d visited Reno to collect Lana would’ve attacked me on sight.

  This Adam realized that although he didn’t like it, he needed me.

  “We’re going to have to lay some things on the table.” His gaze drifted to the others and then back to my face. “You’re responsible for my father’s death. How am I supposed to get past that?”

  Unlike my dealings with Isabelle, facing off with the Alpha had my mind clear. “First off, Nero’s squad killed your father. If you recall, I was with you trying to stop Sasha from turning Lana over to them.”

  He groaned. “Semantics. You are Nero.”

  “No, actually, I’m not.” I crossed my arms. “My father is Nero. I work for him.” I raised a brow. “Let me point out that my father had been searching for his daughter since she was out of the foster-care system. When we discovered your Pack had her, my father wanted his daughter back. You father was killed in the cross fire, just as I can assume my father might be if you get close enough to take your daughter.”

  He frowned, pondering.

  I dropped my hands to my sides. “Interesting view from the other side of the board, no? We are the villains of your story, but your Pack is just as villainous in my father’s version.”

  Adam straightened, his gaze leveled on my face. “Why didn’t you tell me what was happening in Sedona? We asked you about it point-blank.”

  “And I had no intention of allowing that mission to be successful. There was no need to warn you.” I rolled my shoulders back. “I told you to leave my brother to me—instead, one of your wolves’ mates shot him.”

  “Yo
u know fucking well he was going to kill Lana and the others,” Adam growled.

  “That’s exactly how it was with me and your packmate. I believe he was Gareth’s twin brother.”

  “Gabe,” he interrupted.

  “Gabe.” I nodded slowly. “One of us was going to die that night. And yet, because I won that battle, your Pack sees me as a murderer. Why would my family see you and your Pack any differently for killing Damian?”

  Rage colored his skin, redness creeping up his neck, but he didn’t move. Not physically. He’d matured more than I realized.

  Adam broke eye contact, shaking his head. Finally, he focused on me again. “Here’s the thing. I will suck up my pride—hell, I’ll sacrifice my life if it comes to that—but I want my little girl home. That’s all I want out of this.”

  “We’ll have to figure out how to work together to see that happen.”

  Adam glanced past me to the others again. “For once, we want the same thing.”

  I held out my hand. Adam stared at it, then up at me. “What are we shaking on?”

  “I’m making a pact with you. For this mission, we’re on the same side of the chessboard.”

  He didn’t take my hand. “Tell me one more thing first. When Sasha had a gun to my brother’s head to trade Lana for him, which side were you on that day?”

  I dropped my hand and sighed. “Not that it matters, but the moment I discovered the file on the breeding experiment and found out Lana was my half sister, my allegiance to her has never faltered. She’s my blood, as are her children. I knew Sasha wouldn’t kill your brother. She was bluffing.”

  “Then why were you even there?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” I raised a brow. “If a fight broke out, or Lana delivered herself in trade, I was going to protect my blood.”

  Adam raked a hand through his hair. “Lana isn’t coming on this trip.”

  I caught his arm, and his entire body tensed. I waited for his full attention and whispered, “For this mission, you will be my brother.”

  We stared at each other for a moment. And gradually, I realized that I meant every word. No one could have been more surprised than me.

  Adam cleared his throat and brought his hand up, clasping my forearm. “For this mission, you’re Pack.”

  I tightened my hold on his arm in response, my chest pulsing with a strange ache. I’d witnessed the wolves greeting one another like this during my surveillance missions. I’d thought they were savages.

  But staring into this Alpha’s eyes, something mystical bound us. I didn’t have words to sufficiently describe it. “For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother.”

  A tentative smile cracked through Adam’s stern features. “What’s that, Shakespeare?”

  I chuckled. “Perhaps there’s hope for you yet, wolf.”

  We returned to the others, not as friends, but as tenuous allies with one mission uniting us. I prayed for the little girl’s sake it would be enough. Adam embraced Lana and the boy while I stopped at Isabelle’s side. Her hand slid into mine, causing me to glance her way.

  “Everything okay?”

  I shrugged. “I hope that it will be.”

  The next hurdle would be a plan for reconnaissance, but first I had to get back inside the compound and assess the situation.

  I would need to face my father without him knowing I was no longer standing on his side of the chessboard.

  …

  The private jet took us directly from Reno to Washington, D.C., but because I used it, my father would know I was back on the East Coast instead of in Sedona. I needed to get to him before he had time to leave with the girl. I dropped my gear in the suite at the hotel and got on the road.

  With Washington in my rearview mirror, I had an hour alone in the car to clear my head. The Nero compound sat on just over five hundred acres of land outside Lovettsville, Virginia. Close enough to D.C. for our meetings with the military, and far enough away for our operatives to shift into jaguars during the new moon without any humans discovering us.

  For now, my sole goal was to find little Madeleine and learn my father’s plans for her. Until I knew her location, there was no point bringing the wolves. I still wasn’t sure how I’d get them in yet anyway. Especially Adam Sloan.

  Neither Adam nor Isabelle was happy being left behind in D.C. at the hotel, but eventually I won the argument. If they were anywhere near Lovettsville, it was too risky that one of ours might catch their scents.

  The gates of the Nero Organization compound bore the logo of the proud lion head with an N emblazoned on its forehead. It matched the tattoo on the inside of my wrist. Every assassin was marked before their first solo mission. My father molded it into an “honor,” but it was little more than a system for him to keep traitors from infiltrating the ranks.

  It marked us as his property.

  I drove up in the black BMW and lowered the window. The armed guard at the gate appeared to be standard military issue, but his scent revealed he was one of our jaguar shifters. I didn’t recognize him, but that wasn’t unusual. It took years to rise up through the ranks in the Nero Organization.

  We each pulled up our sleeves, exposing our matching tattoos out of habit. He recognized me immediately.

  “Sebastian.” He checked his digital tablet and back up to me. “You’re not on the arrivals list.”

  “I’m well aware.” I waited, focusing on keeping my breathing even, willing my heart rate to remain steady.

  He frowned. “I’ll have to call for approval.”

  I raised a brow, my tone dropping to a menacing snarl. “This is my home. Open the goddamn gate. Now.”

  He hesitated for a second and finally tapped the code into the tablet. “Okay, you’re clear.”

  I rolled up my window without responding and drove through the iron gates. A fourteen-foot-high block wall surrounded the entire perimeter of the compound. Each corner of the property had a watchtower manned by an armed human mercenary. None of them knew we shifted into jaguars one night a month. It was my father’s safeguard to keep any of his men from thoughts of escape.

  The humans would shoot a giant cat first and ask questions later. They’d have no idea they were killing a man. And none of us would entrust a human with our secret, for fear we’d be exposed and studied as lab rats rather than citizens—or even worse, hunted like wild animals.

  As I drove toward the main building, it seemed as if I were seeing our compound for the first time. I was looking for entry and exit points. How would I smuggle two wolves in and get them back out with a little girl in tow?

  First things first. I needed to find out where my father was keeping Madeleine.

  I could worry about the rest later.

  Chapter Twelve

  Isabelle

  Adam stalked around the suite like a caged animal. I tried to stay focused on my laptop, but it was tough not to get distracted.

  “Did you find anything yet?”

  I glanced his way. “I found some Google Earth footage of the Nero compound, but most of the property is heavily wooded, so I can’t make out much. Looks like a main building and some smaller ones scattered around.”

  “At least there really is a compound in Virginia and he wasn’t bullshitting us with that.” Adam stood in front of the window, probably not even noticing the amazing view of the monuments in the distance. “Still no word from Sebastian?”

  It shouldn’t have bugged me to hear him bagging on Sebastian. But it did.

  Right now, Sebastian could be standing face-to-face with his psychotic father. What if he decided he didn’t need his son anymore now that he had his granddaughter, or what if his father had someone tailing us? What if he knew Sebastian had had a private audience with the Alpha of the Reno Pack?

  I picked up my phone, even though I was well aware it hadn’t buzzed. “Not yet.”

  “I shouldn’t have agreed to this. We’re sitting ducks. He can send a cleanup team to take us out at any ti
me. We’re right where he said we’d be.”

  I didn’t want to believe Sebastian would betray us. Before he left for the compound, he’d pulled me into the bedroom of the suite. Adam had been in the shower. Sebastian looked me in the eyes and said he would be back for me.

  Just like my father had told me he loved me, and then never came home.

  And there was no love between me and Sebastian. Lust, attraction, maybe even a joint hope for some kind of future together. But to love, really love…I’d never make myself that vulnerable again.

  I closed my laptop. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Adam turned around. “And go where, exactly?”

  “Anywhere other than here. I’ll have my phone for Sebastian to make contact. But if you’re right, we won’t be where they’re expecting us.”

  He started to nod. “The waiting is killing me.”

  I jammed my laptop in the bag. “So let’s find a coffee shop. I can tether my laptop to my phone for wifi and research anywhere.”

  He grabbed his jacket. “Works for me.”

  In the lobby we scanned for any trouble, but we were the only shifters downstairs. Until the glass doors opened. Adam caught the scent first, putting himself between me and the man heading straight for us.

  But I knew this jaguar.

  I stepped around Adam. “Vance? What are you doing here?”

  He shook his head, voice barely above a whisper. “Not here. I’ve got a car outside.”

  Adam crossed his arms. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Vance’s attention flicked from me to Adam. His easy smile beamed as he offered his hand. “You must be Luke’s Alpha.”

  Adam looked at me. “Is he from Sedona?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “Vance works with Sebastian.”

  “For Nero.” Adam raised a brow.

  Vance lowered his hand. “I’ll answer all your questions, but we can’t do it here.”

  I adjusted the strap on my laptop bag. “Vance isn’t an enemy.”

  He tilted his head my way. “The lady’s right. I wouldn’t have come in through the front door if I was on the clock.”

  Adam sighed, dropping his hands to his side. “All right.”