Seduced by the Moon

by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

  Fighting to stay conscious, Skylar touched her face, smelled blood, felt something warm trickle down her cheek. But this wasn’t real, she told herself over and over. It was only part of some new dream.

  Someone moved beside her, casting a shadow on the ground. Beyond the scent of blood, she recognized this new scent. Gavin. Not a stranger. Gavin had found her, and would help.

  Strong arms covered her as her ranger’s body curled around her body from behind. He tried to lift her up, but his tight hold increased the level of her pain.

  She screamed in agony, feeling as if she were being turned inside out. Sizzling blue-white bolts of internal lightning fried her nerve endings.

  Beside her, Gavin grunted and swore. She heard the unmistakable crunch of bones breaking. Had Gavin broken his arm in his attempt to lift her? A sickening sound, like wet meat slapping the ground, followed.

  Swear to God, she couldn’t stand much more.

  Fear began to take her over, revving her system for flight. Adrenaline spiked as she cried out again and made an effort to stand. Gavin caught her to him, shaking and speechless, locked in the throes of some kind of physical torment of his own. When his body jerked a final time, he let loose a low rumbling growl that reverberated in her chest as if she’d made it.

  And then he hoisted her into his arms, high off the ground. Holding her tight against his chest, he lurched sideways, out of the moonlight.

  Chapter 21

  “Gavin, I’m sick,” Skylar said as he made for a spot deep under the cover of trees that would block the light.

  He’d morphed back to his human shape so that she’d recognize him and not be scared. But he wasn’t able to maintain that shape.

  He hurt like hell.

  His arms, wrapped around Skylar, were again furred-up and thick with muscle. His rib cage, pressed to her right shoulder, made nightmarish popping sounds as he moved. The wolf he’d merged with didn’t give a fig for decorum and priorities. According to the wolf, Skylar Donovan smelled way too good to let loose.

  She shook in his arms, her body contorting every time his did as if mimicking something it was supposed to do, and following his lead.

  He chanced a closer look at her.

  Skylar’s beautiful face was deathly white. Her teeth made bloody indentations on her lower lip. More blood pooled on her cheek, a harsh contrast to her pallor. Long, fair lashes fluttered, and he waited for her eyes to open, dreading that moment, hating it in advance. But she cut him a break for which he was eternally grateful.

  Her body pulsed in time with his, one tremendous boom after another jerking them both. She always felt light in his arms, but she was also a weighty part of the same darkness that consumed him.

  Out of the moonlight, her blue shirt seemed dull. Her jeans were torn on one knee. He set her down carefully, regretfully, against a tree, and moved away from her, unable to explain any of this to her without a voice.

  “Gavin…” she whispered.

  But his mind was nearly beyond being able to deal with her rationally. The beast in him wanted her desperately because Skylar was going to be like him. Soon.

  Skylar was close to shifting tonight, and wolf recognized wolf. No doubt about it. She was about to shed her skin and become like him for the first time. She was experiencing her first taste of what the moon could do to her, and Gavin, stunned by this, despised himself.

  The blame was his. In some way, he’d done this to her. She suffered the consequences of his sleeping with her and being so attracted to her that he put her safety in jeopardy to satisfy a man’s physical cravings.

  In his defense, resisting her had never been an option. Skylar looked and tasted like the mate he’d feared he’d never find. Both he and his wolf chose her because of needs so intense that nothing could have kept him from her.

  She didn’t know any of this.

  Skylar was innocent.

  “Vertigo,” she said, exhaling in staggered breaths.

  She called this travesty vertigo when in reality what happened tonight was a life sentence of unbelievable pain and torment: of living on the fringes and never feeling normal again.

  I am so sorry.

  I can’t take it back.

  Don’t you see?

  Under the cover of the trees, his body felt as if it were being crushed from within. Imploding with a pressure almost too much to bear. He supposed another shift might kill him this time.

  He had to run: get away from Skylar and allow his wolf the room it required. But another monstrous entity also roamed here tonight, and Skylar, weakened and hurting like this, was fair game.

  He wasn’t the human she expected to see, and yet he didn’t dare deny the moon her wicked brand of revelry—the moon that demanded payment for every rebellious transgression, such as denial.

  “You won’t leave me here, Gavin?”

  Without a voice, he couldn’t comfort her or shout at her for being so damn stubborn about doing whatever she pleased. How many times had he warned her about staying inside?

  Now look, he thought.

  “Are you okay?” Her voice shook with concern for him.

  Damn it, Skylar. I don’t deserve your concern. I did this to you.

  He really was sorry. God, he was. He would have given anything to take it back.

  You’ll be all right for the time being if you stay in the shadows, my beautiful lover, he wanted to say out loud. Your transformation will be postponed.

  But for how long? She couldn’t stay here all night, a prisoner of the moonlight, and he didn’t see any way to get her home.

  “I heard something break,” she said.

  Shaking his head was an action she didn’t see with the tree blocking her view. And he couldn’t manage more. He was very close to giving everything away.

  “I’m sorry.” Her voice was huskier now. “I think the spinning might be easing up. In a minute I might be able to stand. I can try.”

  In the silence following her remark, Gavin heard her draw several more rasping breaths. When his wolf whined, the sound emerged as a guttural growl of fury.

  “Gavin? What was that?”

  He thought seriously about stepping clear of the tree and allowing her to see him. But that wasn’t doable. Skylar didn’t deserve the knowledge that the man she’d given her body to that very day was a werewolf.

  God. Skylar.

  She might damn him from this night forward and be justified in doing so. Skylar would surely hate him if she knew he’d done this to her in some way that he still remained ignorant of. Especially since she’d need him more than ever.

  No way could he go after the other monster that had done this same thing to him. He wasn’t going to let Skylar tackle this transformation from woman to wolf alone. The memory of the trauma of his system rewiring for the first time tormented him still.

  Damn moon.

  “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” she ventured. “You’re not okay. What is it? Are you still there, Gavin? Hell, what a pair we are.”

  Gavin dragged all ten claws down the bark beside him, relishing the minor punishment wood slivers provided. Pretty soon Skylar was going to distrust the silence and come after him, crawling if she had to. He saw no way out of this, but to let her.

  And then a ferocious roar, like the sound of a rolling earthquake, shook the darkness around him.

  *

  The terrible sound drove Skylar to her feet. Not quite ready to stand on her own, she clung tightly to the tree beside her.

  “What the hell was that?”

  The sound turned her insides to putty. She felt like death warmed over and was now covered in chills.

  If the wolf Gavin chased made that sound, they were screwed. The damn thing howled like an animal on steroids.

  “Gavin. Tell me you’re here, and that you heard it.”

  He could have gone, she concluded when he didn’t reply, but she didn’t think so. She was certain she felt him nearby. That sense of him should have been suspe
ct, she supposed. It was strange how she’d felt Gavin from the start, before seeing him in the garden that night and before ever setting eyes on him, as if she possessed some special kind of ranger radar.

  She took a tentative step away from the tree and held out both hands for balance. A second step moved her inches closer to where she thought her handsomely rugged ranger silently waited. Despite whatever it was that kept him from speaking to her.

  One more step toward the path that was still drenched in moonlight, and she thought she might make it. But she was broadsided by a moving mass of darkness with the force of a wrecking ball.

  Knocked over, but instantly free of the heavy weight of the thing, Skylar rolled to her side and scrambled to her feet. Another roar, this one fainter, yet very close, raised chills on top of chills on the back of her neck.

  “Gavin?” she shouted. “Be careful. Something is here.”

  Snapping her head around, she backpedaled to the tree and pressed her back to it, wishing she hadn’t lost the gun. The spinning was gone now and she felt mostly normal, wide-awake and completely alert.

  “Damn you,” she said to the man so obviously avoiding her. “I know you’re there. You can stop this shit, and either pick up my gun or help me find it. I’m fairly certain you can’t fight that wolf with your bare hands.”

  Another growl made her turn to face the trees behind her. Peering into the dark, trying to separate that cloak of darkness from anything that might be hiding within it, she missed the closer threat.

  By the time she noticed she was no longer alone beside her tree and that her companion wasn’t Gavin, it was too late to scream.

  Chapter 22

  Some kind of creature faced her, standing upright on two legs and partially resembling the shape of a human.

  Stunned by the creature’s appearance, Skylar geared up for a sprint, high on adrenaline, wondering how far she’d get.

  The thing didn’t move. Nor did it attack. It stood there, watching her like the predator it probably was. She sensed something else beyond the entity in front of her, and was too shaken up to want to acknowledge that this creature might have brought a friend.

  “Gavin,” she said, inching back farther, hoping he heard her and was ready to do some damage to whatever this was.

  In response to her voice, the big creature turned its head to look at her, and a fresh round of fear spiked through Skylar that was so potent and senselessly enlightening, she staggered sideways.

  Can’t be. It’s just a mistake. This creature heard me and responded to the sound.

  Her gut told her a different story, though, as it clenched. Her body knew what her mind refused to comprehend. She’d sensed this presence, experienced this scenario in her dreams.

  No!

  This creature couldn’t be Gavin. Yet how many times had she questioned the immediacy of her attraction to the ranger, and her feeling that he’d stepped from those dreams and into her current reality?

  “Gavin,” she whispered, shaken, extremely anxious and again questioning her mental state.

  “Gavin, is that you?”

  Another roar came from the surroundings in reaction to her voice, but the creature in front of her didn’t make that sound. The werewolf turned and stood rigidly with its back to her, its huge body as tense as hers.

  Her fear filled the air with a crackling tension that seemed tangible enough to touch before it scattered like spores in the wind. More fear gripped her throat, making speech impossible, stapling her in place though she was desperate to get away.

  Brush north of the path rustled. Skylar covered her mouth to muffle a scream. The werewolf—damn it, that’s what it was—dropped to a crouch, its body hunched and ready to spring to meet whatever caused the sound.

  And if a creature like the one in front of her feared what was out there, how awful must that other thing be?

  In a moment of suspended silence, her worst nightmare stepped onto the path and into the moonlight with a full coat of black fur that shone like polished obsidian.

  God…

  This was a real monster, and as different from the werewolf beside her as the werewolf was from humans.

  The world had just come unglued.

  The monster’s coat rippled in a nonexistent breeze, over a massive chest and long appendages. Nearly twice the size of the creature beside her, its wolf-shaped head perched on a thick, muscled neck. An elongated muzzle protruded menacingly beneath deep-set eyes. Its mouth hung open to reveal a full set of needle-sharp teeth.

  Skylar’s knees went weak at the sight.

  The black beast lifted its massive head and sniffed the air. Those terrible eyes looked in Skylar’s direction with an intense focus that pinpointed her location in the shadows.

  Skylar shook so hard everything around her moved. Run, she told herself. Try to get away.

  But Gavin…

  Was that Gavin in front of her, suited up in his own fur coat and rising to cut off the bigger monster’s view of a woman whose legs no longer worked properly?

  Neither of the incredible creatures budged in a face-off that lasted minutes. Low warning growls bubbled up from the throat of the one Skylar hoped wasn’t actually Gavin, those growls as scary as anything else in this fantastical scene.

  Undeterred, the huge black monster remained still, with its head cocked to one side as if it might be calculating a next move or considering her presence. It continued to zero in on her, ignoring the creature barring the way.

  And if that wasn’t strange enough, under its intense scrutiny, Skylar began to burn with an unfamiliar heat. A burn so hot, it felt cold. She gazed on the scene with a new awareness, as if layers of her senses were being peeled back to reveal a freshly kindled power for seeing what was in front of her.

  The darkness around her lightened, dulling shadows from black to gray. Shafts of moonlight that she hadn’t previously noticed dappled the ground around the creature she felt sure stood guard over her, highlighting a musculature that was magnificently alien. But what good would that kind of muscle do against the larger beast?

  She didn’t want to find out. She had to run, and couldn’t. She wanted to speak, though no words came. The black-coated monster didn’t move from its circle of moonlight. Only its coat shuddered, catching and reflecting the moonlight each time the beast took a breath.

  Finally, the werewolf beside her lunged at the larger creature, kicking up leaves and dirt that flew in all directions. When the dust cleared, Skylar saw only one creature standing. The werewolf she thought might be Gavin was also looking around in disbelief, because no evidence of the black beast remained.

  *

  Gavin glanced over his shoulder once at Skylar and then bolted after the monster that had knocked Skylar down and returned, drawn to her like a moth to the flame.

  He knew now by the monster’s actions that this area was no longer safe for her.

  But why hadn’t it attacked? Taken what it wanted right there? Surely his own presence hadn’t made a difference.

  If he could have gotten Skylar out of there that minute, put her in the car and driven straight to the airport, she might possibly have had a chance. But that wasn’t an option.

  “Not tonight. Not like this. Not for you, Skylar.”

  Moonlight ruled their shapes. His shape, and soon hers. Gavin again faced the dilemma that was tearing him in two. Find the monster or stay with Skylar. Run after the beast maker, or help a new beast be born.

  His pulse raced. As dire as the situation was, he couldn’t resist Skylar. As a human female, she’d been a knockout to his senses. With wolf added to the mix, she was a real physical need, an urge heeded by every cell in his body that told him she was his mate and that werewolves mate forever.

  He found himself circling back to her. Skylar Donovan was so very important to him.

  Needing a voice, he darted beneath tree cover not far from where she still stood, and began the shift in reverse. Listening to the sounds of his body retra
cting, feeling his skin sucked inward with a sting and a hiss, and nearly unable to breathe, he caved to the pain and pressure that made him utter one last growl.

  Halfway through the shift, and with no more time to spare, he moved toward Skylar, his body close enough to human in shape for her to recognize his outline.

  “Skylar.” He cleared his throat, swallowed back a howl of distress, and began again. “Skylar, we have to get out of here.”

  Her voice rang with relief. “Oh, thank God. I thought you were gone. I thought…”

  “No. I’m here. Listen to me. That fiend touched you. It now knows your scent.”

  She swayed on her feet with one hand on the tree while she listened to him without interrupting.

  “That creature kills and maims, showing no mercy. If it was the same monster your father ran into out here, you can see how easily an accident could happen. If your father chased it, sought it out or knew of its existence, he’d be one of the very few.”

  Gavin searched for the strength to go on, afraid he might not find it. The pain burning through him was bad, the worst ever, and he had to rise above it.

  He backed up, his transition nearly complete, his ears ringing with the mind-numbing pain of far too many shifts and a body currently uncertain of which shape to maintain.

  “You don’t have to believe me. Trust what your own gut tells you. Do you know what ran you down?”

  “Yes,” she said without moving, without running to him. “A werewolf. It was a damn werewolf.”

  Gavin shut his eyes. “Yes.”

  “And so are you,” Skylar said, surprising him when he’d been pretty sure nothing more ever could.

  She didn’t elaborate. Maybe she couldn’t. But she knew.

  “There’s more.” He spoke through gritted teeth, already agonizing over what to say to her next.

  “Impossible,” she argued, shaking her head, scared to hear anything else. “There can’t be more.”

  Gavin strode forward until he was near enough to catch Skylar if she collapsed, and close enough to fill his lungs with her familiar heady scent. She didn’t back away from him. Her eyes searched his as if she saw him clearly.