Moonlight Lovers: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 7)

by K. R. Alexander

  A stupid, fatigued brain thing to think about—like my fretting over vampires wheezing and coughing although they were dead bodies that didn’t need to breathe at all—but curiosity had always been strong in me. The topic itself was almost secondary.

  “Okay … Rowan says—stop it, Jed—that he didn’t even know there was a Welsh pack, but the Mountain Pack is not really one pack. They’re spread in different families over Cumbria and parts of Scotland. Isaac already said that.” I frowned. “I wonder if Rowan has any better ideas about an actual address. Isaac hasn’t been in touch with them for years. Maybe these druids are finally going to be some help…”

  I started a text with Jed’s paw resting across my chest and my arms in turn resting on this.

  “You know, I should just call him. If he has information…”

  Jed scrambled to drape his head across my chest.

  “No … too tired. I can call tomorrow if we need it. We’re going to Wales first anyway. Maybe Isaac should talk to him. Between the two of them…” I sent my text.

  Rowan answered right away that the only areas he knew of the Mountain Pack currently living were a place called Duddon Valley in Cumbria and in general in the Lake District. Isaac probably knew that much. Still, I was glad of the tip.

  It turned out the Duddon Valley was not that far as the crow flies from Snowdonia National Park in Wales. Just where Peter and the others were heading when they were attacked. Were they already in the Lake District? Was that the scene of the gravel road and dry stone walls in the dark? Or had they still been in Wales, never made it out at all?

  One way or another, simply based on the timing of when Peter had vanished, we knew they hadn’t been up to Scotland. He would have reported back to Diana if they’d already talked with wolves—or been unable to find them—in Cumbria.

  Snowdonia, Duddon Valley, Lake District. With the list running through my mind like a chant, I copied it down into my notebook, thanked Rowan, and said we’d be in touch soon. No word back from Gavin. Probably home with “Mother” and he couldn’t use his phone. Modern technology was out of bounds in her manor.

  “There.” I closed my notebook and set it and phone back on the battered bedside shelf. “We’re getting something done. Even if Isaac doesn’t have much to add, we sort of know what we’re doing. What scares me…” I’d turned to face Jed on my side as I spoke and trailed off.

  He lifted his head, nose inches from mine, waiting for me to finish.

  “It’s just … we have to find them. We have to find out who. But … once we do find them…” I let out a slow breath.

  Jed drew back his lips.

  “Goddess, you have huge teeth.” I recoiled. It was freaky right in my face.

  He swished his tail across the duvet and rested his muzzle almost touching the hollow of my throat.

  I twisted my fingers into the wooly undercoat of his mane. “One wall at a time. One bridge at a time.” Like squeezing a big, plush teddy bear—only much better. I smiled. “It’s nice to be home.”

  Chapter 24

  A growl.

  “Don’t … please don’t fight.” My voice was thick, groggy.

  The growling had already stopped, though. The wolf… Hmm… I had my arm around the neck of a big, fluffy wolf. He wasn’t growling. The growl had been distant.

  Slowly, he lifted his head and I withdrew my arm.

  I blinked. The bulk of dark fur failed to block out sunlight still reaching the room in a tiny patch from the doorway. There stood Kage, in skin as before, all six feet plus of him filling the doorway. He’d been the one who growled? It seemed so.

  Perhaps because I was in his bed with his cousin and worst enemy. With my arm around him. Understandable.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Thank you all for being so … conscientious about my welfare.”

  I rubbed my eyes and, with my arm gone from him, Jed stood above me. He hopped off, going over me to land on my side of the bed rather than jumping off near the door and Kage.

  His claws clattered on linoleum as he turned to stick his nose in my face again.

  “Yes.” I barely patted his muzzle. “Thanks for visiting. Go on.”

  Jed walked stiffly away, head up, pace sedate, never so much as glancing at Kage but gazing past him.

  “Supposed to rain tonight,” Kage said with a snarl still in his tone.

  “Is it? Is there any overhang?”

  “Not where he’s sleeping.”

  Jed walked out through the living room for the front door, which was probably standing open.

  “Could you stretch a tarp or something so he has a little shelter if he’s going to insist on sleeping out there?”

  “Could. But I won’t. He wouldn’t want it. Rain on a tarp kills your hearing.”

  “He can sleep in the kitchen—”

  “No.”

  I rolled over to grab my phone and look at the forecast before making a big deal of this. Jed probably didn’t actually care about a little summer rain. As long as that was all it was.

  At least it was 8:00 p.m.

  Forecast: possible rain starting in the wee hours of morning, partly cloudy tomorrow, a warm night. Jed would be fine. There was plenty of shelter nearby where he could still keep an eye on the place if it did get bad.

  Kage closed the front door, then grabbed something from the wardrobe to stuff in his rucksack in the living room and headed for the bathroom.

  He couldn’t have been gone more than five minutes. So I was startled when I was once again woken by him. This time by his sitting on the far side of the bed.

  “Want an alarm, princess?” he asked. “Since we have to be on the road by sunrise to make the Walsh border before Thursday?”

  “Very funny.” I rolled onto my stomach, stretching, face buried in the pillow. “I have every intention of being asleep again in another sixty seconds. And probably wide awake at four in the morning. So let’s just play it by ear.”

  “Moon, I’m tired,” Kage muttered, shifting around, climbing into bed. He sighed as he lay back.

  The simple comment attracted my attention. Kage would never say something like that in company. To me or Jason, no one else. How long had it been since I’d had a visit from Private Kage rather than Public Image Kage? When on the trip? Ever? Surely it hadn’t been the morning after his birthday in the hotel in London. Surely something more recent than that…

  I turned my face on the pillow to see him.

  There was no electric light on and the place was gently lit with a flecks of sunlight still filtering in from the other room. Kage lay on his back, rubbing his temples in a circular motion with the balls of both hands. He was shirtless, presumably wearing boxer shorts, as he previously had at home in bed.

  “When was the last time we were alone together?” I asked, bemused.

  “Marzipan,” he said without having to think much about it.

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” I finished the turning motion to face him on my side. “Sorry, Kage.”

  “Sorry?” He dropped his hands and looked at me. “On account of…?”

  “Not spending more time with you. My mistake. With the demands of the trip and everything … I should have made more of an effort.”

  He rolled onto his right side to face me, right hand under the pillow. “Quality matters? Not quantity?” A hint of a smile in his otherwise tired expression.

  “That’s … such a weird thing for you to say you’re making me uncomfortable.”

  More like something Isaac might say if I apologized to him for the same thing.

  “Right…” Kage clenched his jaw for a moment, eyes squeezed shut, stifling a yawn in my face. Then, “Just being friendly?” He smiled more and leaned in to kiss my lips.

  I laughed. “That’s better. Sounds like you.” I stroked across his brow while Kage shut his eyes.

  “Last time we were proper alone was you just out of the shower, telly on showing adds for chocolates and meal kits
and phone service and pills to lose weight and fast food.” His voice was soft, dreamy as I rested my hand on his cheek. “You had messages on your mobile. Came back to sit by me on the bed. You tasted the marzipan and said I’d best have it. Then you said it was sexy how I ate it slow.”

  I stared at him until Kage blinked and looked at me. “How do you remember all those bits and pieces? Doesn’t it seem like a lifetime ago?”

  “Tried eating custard slow but you didn’t notice that one.”

  “You did?”

  “Frozen custard in Boulder? You had a tiny chocolate cone. After the rock climbing store and the supermarket that you and Jay and Andrew went in. Remember? I had a pint of malt swirl and started real slow with the spoon.” To demonstrate, Kage took my hand in his, smoothed my first finger to stand up, and put his lips around it to play the part of the spoon. Ever so slowly, his hot tongue licking imaginary custard off my knuckle, he withdrew the finger. At the end, with my nerve endings tingling, he lingered with lips and tongue for an extra ten seconds over the very tip and nail. Then he gave the hand back to me.

  “Like that.” He heaved a sigh. “Only you were busy checking directions and did we have everything and how far to the cabins. Never seemed to notice.”

  “I didn’t notice. I’m sorry. I’d have liked that. Could you try again sometime? And catch my eye? You’re absolutely right.”

  He nodded and turned his face to the pillow on another yawn.

  “You are so observant. And have such a good memory. Let’s get back to some lessons also, okay? It’s a bit advanced, but I’ll walk you through the warding process in the morning.”

  When he’d looked up again, his gaze had settled on my lips, where it remained. “Orataj are mentors, guides, teachers through Moon’s transition. You know that. There’s not one really comparable word to translate orataj into English. But ‘teacher’ is gemtaj. A really literal translation would be something like ‘female guide,’ even though it’s used for both male and female teachers. Remember gemä?”

  I couldn’t off the top of my head, but it came back in context. “Mother?”

  “Right. Vinu se min gemtaj. Translate?” Smiling.

  “Oh, Kage, I’m too far gone—”

  He touched a finger to my lips. “You know those, princess. Vinu se min gemtaj.”

  “I… Vinu se min gemtaj…” I blinked. “‘You are my teacher.’”

  He kissed me. “See?”

  “I see.” I wrapped my arm around his back, curling in against his chest, and Kage returned the embrace, kissing my temple and hair.

  “How are you doing?” I asked after a moment drowsing to the rhythm of his heartbeat. “You saw your parents? And Diana?”

  “I’m right enough. They’re … middling. It’s … not easy. Seeing everyone and not yet… Not…”

  “Not yet having a clear answer for them? After all we’ve been through? I know. We will. Soon.”

  “Been saying that for over a month. Easy for us to believe as we sniff new tracks. Harder on them.”

  “Will it be okay for me to talk with Diana in the morning? She’s not wanting us to go?”

  “Yes and yes. She means to see you. You’ll be fine. Stick with us, though.”

  “I will. And Jason? Is he with his parents?”

  “Far as I know. He’ll be along. Dead on his paws also. Flying…”

  “It’s hard work, isn’t it?”

  “If a wolf can’t get there on a bike or a paw, could be best to drop the whole thing.”

  “Not making a world traveler of you, then?”

  “Moon forbid. See more of Europe sometime. That’s enough for me.”

  “Worth it, though? For Rocky Mountains and the Grand Tetons?”

  He buried his nose in my hair. “Always worth it being with you. And … those coyotes turned out all right.” Grudging.

  “Didn’t they, though?” I smiled. “Do you think we could let up a bit with the prejudice toward other types of shifters?”

  “Still not wolves.” Mumbling.

  “Close enough to wolves. You and Jason certainly hit it off with them after the fireside snacks.”

  Kage snorted. “Tried.”

  “You tried?” I pulled back enough to see him. “I thought things went well.”

  “Almost.” He was rueful, shaking his head a little. “Eichib asked us to run with him. He and another bloke took us up to their lake and showed us hunting grounds. Smelled more bleeding moose.” With a growl in his voice. “Eichib caught a bolting jackrabbit—sodding quick buggers. Those coyotes, I mean. Faster than Andrew in fur. He had more planned for us. Jay wouldn’t have it,” he added with an irritable twitch.

  “He wouldn’t? You mean, a physical something? And Jason said no? Interesting coming from someone who’s insisted over and over to me that he has no problem with you sleeping around.”

  “Not on account of me.” Kage frowned. “On account of you. He said you’d be right narked if one of us did something like that.”

  I stared at him, no longer drifting off. “Bullshit.”

  He gave as much of a shrug as he could.

  “That’s nonsense,” I said. “I met you when you were in a relationship already and only became involved with you under circumstances that felt like you were cheating in the first place. What does that tell me about you?

  “So there’s that for starters, right? Then, second, I’m sleeping around. Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t be ‘exclusive’ inside an ‘open’ relationship, right? I’ve already admitted this is unfamiliar territory to me. But it seems like any relationship, including open and non-monogamous, can still be committed—and still form its own sort of exclusion, whether that’s sleeping with two people, or four, or twelve. So I can sort of see where he’s coming from: wherein, multiple partners doesn’t mean ‘sleeping around’ is okay. However, third point, and just as important: we’ve never talked about this. We only recently met—even though it seems like ages, or nothing at all. And in those weeks—I repeat—I’ve been bed-hopping and I knew you were the sort to do the same. So even the fact that he would think that, much less tell you off, like I’d be upset—why are you laughing at me?”

  “Not laughing—”

  “You’re grinning. You think this is funny? Look, I was right in Portland that we’ve been blundering around with these relationships without talking about it and that doesn’t feel right. I won’t put you on the spot again to talk in a group, but obviously we need to talk one-on-one. What’s cool, what’s not cool, what everyone wants and—Kage?”

  He really was laughing. “You’re barking.”

  “What?”

  “Barking mad.” Chuckling, he kissed my nose, turned his head away on more laughter, and tried to get control of himself.

  I stared, angry—mostly at Jason—but also confused.

  Kage sighed himself into quiet. “Don’t need to talk to us. You know what we want. Want to dig a den with you. If you’re needing us to have a proper chat to explain that—”

  “No, there are other things we need to talk about. But forget that for a second. We’re not going to solve that right now. What I’m upset over is that you guys would be thinking I’m thinking stuff that I’m not. Like that I’m way more a control freak than I already am, plus a flaming hypocrite, plus a narcissistic princess who thinks that every one of the half dozen guys—including those already in another relationship when I met them—who I choose to sleep with should be totally exclusive and loyal only to me purely on principle, when really—”

  Kage pressed two fingertips gently to my lips. “Shhh…” He kissed me while I was breathing hard, trying to get my breath back. “Never said I thought you were thinking that, Cassia.” He kissed me again. “Zar was glued to you like a plaster cast that night. You had Jed and Isaac watching out for you. Knew you were all right and I wouldn’t have said no to a little … extra hospitality from Eichib. It hadn’t crossed my mind you’d be put out by something like that, seeing h
ow … well … some of what you just said. If it was trouble for you, of course I wouldn’t run with some coyote for a laugh. Not that important to me. You’re important to me. You and Jason. You know that, right? You’re silver, Cassia. My Moon and stars.”

  He trailed his fingertips across my cheekbone, pushing hair behind my ear as he spoke quietly. “To me, though, it was a laugh. Like I said. You were all right. Jay was along. We’d have a bit of fun. Only he said no. Seemed to think I was the mad one—shocked I’d consider it. Said you’d be upset: being human, different ideas about relationships and all that. Well … I hadn’t thought, but didn’t want you hurt about something daft like that. Told Eichib no, we’d just have a run with them. Still had some fun. Cheeky little pricks, though.”

  “So … Jason said I wouldn’t like it. Exactly like he told me that you would like it if … he and I…”

  We looked into one another’s eyes, close on the pillow, for a long time, the room now dim with summer twilight.

  “Kage? Let’s both try something. An experiment. Next time Jason says someone else would want anything a certain way, we stop dead what we’re doing. Stop and find that person and say, ‘How do you actually feel about this situation? What is it you want?’ Give that person his or her own view before moving another inch down any path that Jason may be indicating.”

  Kage pulled a face. “Can’t treat him like that.”

  “What?”

  “He’s a dark star. I couldn’t treat him that way. It’d take all the heart out of him.”

  “Wait…” I frowned. “So you get this? You already know that what I’m saying is a good idea, right?”

  “Sure.” Stroking my face again. “Only, that’s who he is. Not going to change him. It would just hurt him—going around cutting him off like that.”

  “Goddess, Kage, listen to yourself. You’re talking about someone who is deliberately scheming to hurt other people whom he supposedly loves. Let’s not even go back to the stuff with me. This recent thing with the coyotes, he could have said, ‘Let’s not tonight. I’d rather just you and me. I don’t want to get involved with Eichib.’ And you’d have been fine with that, right? You wouldn’t have pushed him about either getting involved or yourself ditching him to sleep with a coyote, right?”