Moon Child: A PNR Shifter Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 2)

by Serena Akeroyd

  I shook my head. “How does someone who isn’t a beta tell a beta what to do?”

  Her mouth rounded. “Oh, I see what you mean. Parents aren’t as powerful as their kids?”

  “Yep, so they bring them to Eli for him to throw the fear of the Father into them.”

  Her eyes rounded at that. “I’ve never heard you say that before.”

  “What? Mentioning the Father? It’s not something you do often, in case you invoke him.”

  Her mouth rounded next. “Are you shitting me? Where the hell is all this talk coming from?”

  I snickered at her bewilderment. “I guess we figured we’d stay silent on you until we could keep you barefoot and chained to the kitchen.”

  Before she could complain, a maid came in to grab our breakfast dishes. She was new, because the old one had been cast out of the pack for helping the council stage their siege on the packhouse. Hayley and her mate were lucky to be alive. I wasn’t so sure if I was alpha, I’d have been so kind, but Eli was proving to be a good leader. Dominant, strong, assured, but fair. Just.

  The total opposite of his father.

  “Some chain,” she remarked wryly as she watched Ella, the new maid, pick up the plates, set them on a tray, and then retreat with a respectful nod at us.

  When she sank back against the chair, muttering, “How do you invoke a spirit?”

  “You piss Him off,” Ethan replied.

  “Really?” She hummed. “How do you do that?”

  “Feel like pissing a deity off, huh?” I teased.

  Her nose crinkled. “Not exactly. I don’t want to piss anyone off, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a talent for it.”

  I grinned, but Ethan, seeming to sense that something wasn’t right, asked, “What’s going on, mate?”

  Her nose crinkled further. “It’s just… I’ve been having weird dreams again.”

  “I told you, they’re normal—”

  “When I’m pregnant,” she sputtered. “Far as I can tell, I’m not pregnant anymore.”

  And the stinky diaper wasn’t the only proof we had on that score.

  “True.”

  As this was the first I’d heard of any dreams, I arched a brow at her and asked, “What kind of dreams?”

  She sighed. “Stupid ones.”

  “Stupid ones,” I repeated, well aware that was a gross exaggeration. “What kind of stupid ones?”

  “Ones that I…” She tipped her head to the side before she raised a hand and scrubbed her fingers over her face. “It’s crazy.”

  “Nothing’s crazy. Haven’t we already established that?”

  To be honest, I was kind of pissed that she hadn’t talked to me about this already.

  She bit her lip, and I knew she’d felt my hurt. “I didn’t want you to think there was something wrong with me.”

  Her words had me scowling at her. “Why on earth would I think that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because it’s insane?” She sighed. “You know when the council attacked that night?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “If you didn’t crack jokes all the damn time, Austin, maybe she’d feel more comfortable sharing this kind of stuff with you,” Ethan rasped, prompting me to glower at him.

  “It isn’t my fault you’ve got a stick shoved up your ass—”

  “This isn’t helpful,” she groused, her tone dryer than a Martini.

  I heaved a sigh. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. But that isn’t why I didn’t tell him, Ethan. I like his sense of humor. You each have your own way about you, and I go to you for different things.

  “I was hoping Ethan had read something about the kinds of dreams I’ve been having.”

  I frowned at that. “What kind of dreams?” Weren’t there only two kinds? The good kind and the bad?

  “They’re like nightmares, because they always end in blood, but it’s the same one, time and time again. It’s gotten worse since Maribel and Seth showed up.”

  “In what way?”

  “I’m in a clearing, in the middle of the woods, and then I hear this horrendous laugh. It’s like a cackle, but it’s not human. Not at all. It’s an animal, but I don’t know what kind. It’s monstrous. It makes me shudder just thinking about it, never mind experiencing it in sleep.

  “I’m just standing there, spinning around in a circle, trying to get my bearings, and even though it’s like Groundhog Day, I never remember until I wake up that I just had the same dream over and over.”

  She reached for her drawing pad, which was always close at hand now—she even carried one in her Mary Poppin’s purse—and as she started doodling, I could sense she was trying to calm herself down. Something she confirmed when her voice hitched as she continued;

  “So, I stand there, trying to find the cackle because the source of it is getting nearer and nearer, and I know I’m going to get hurt… Next thing I know, I have a bow and arrow in my hands, and I let it loose, then thud. Silence.”

  I knew from what Ethan had told me that she was handy with a bow and arrow, so maybe it wasn’t so bewildering that she dreamed such things, especially not when she’d reacted to a fox preying on a family of rabbits back during Ethan’s claiming.

  I reached up and rubbed my bottom lip.

  “What happens then?”

  “I usually wake up.”

  “What do you think it means?”

  “I don’t know, but I just—”

  “You just what?”

  “I feel like it’s to do with my sister.”

  “But, why?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “It’s just… whenever the dreams hit, I think of her every time I wake up.”

  Before either of us could reply, Eli stormed through the doorway into the dining room. “I managed to get the number, love.”

  “Who does it belong to?” I queried, shooting him a look as he passed a slip of paper to her.

  She didn’t answer, just reached for her phone and dialed it.

  When, a few moments later, she disappointedly muttered, “Damn, no answer,” then ran her hands through her hair, her distress boomed off her in a way that pissed my wolf off and made him want to fix her.

  Of course, my wolf usually wanted to fix her by fucking her as a distraction—not so helpful right now.

  “Who is it?”

  “Her mom,” Eli said softly. “A few weeks ago, Sabina asked me to get her number. The Kingstown pack alpha just got in touch with me to hand it over.”

  I knew he’d called on outstanding favors and set the enforcers of other packs onto the case of finding her family, even though it went against my own wishes.

  In my opinion, I should have been the one to go and find her people myself, and I guessed he saw my disapproval because he rumbled, “Now’s not the time to start arguing, Austin.”

  I shrugged. “Not going to argue, nothing to argue about anymore. I just think it’s dumb as fuck that you’d send some stranger down there to contact someone who’s a member of our den when I could easily go visit—”

  “I asked him not to,” Sabina said huskily, her face tipped toward the breakfast table.

  Her statement had my brows arching. “Huh?”

  She bit her lip, but kept her gaze almost defiantly focused on anything other than me. Which was fucking annoying, considering I was the one she should be looking at.

  “Why?” I asked calmly, even though I wasn’t feeling calm.

  “Because I have a bad feeling about what’s going to happen, and I didn’t want you anywhere but here.”

  I stiffened at that. “You don’t trust me to keep my head attached to my shoulders?”

  “Don’t take it like that, Austin,” Ethan rumbled, his tone sharper than usual, but nothing that I wasn’t accustomed to hearing.

  “Don’t take it like what? Like a hit to the pride? That my mate doesn’t think I can run a simple errand without fucking shit up and getting myself killed?”

&nb
sp; Her eyes flashed at that, and finally, she looked at me. “That’s just it,” she ground out. “It isn’t a simple errand.”

  “Of course it is. Where your mom is concerned, I’d just go visit and talk to her, get an address or some info on your sister, that’s it, for fuck’s sake.”

  Knight grumbled at that, his hands waving as he twisted around to glare at me.

  Well, the little dude could glare at me all he fucking wanted. I was wicked pissed, and I wasn’t afraid to show it. For years, I’d had to hide my feelings, had to shelter them because no one gave a fuck. Now I had two brothers, a kid, and a mate. Someone in that tribe of four had to give a shit, otherwise what was the point of my being here?

  “I’d say don’t be ridiculous, Austin, because you know what you mean to me. You’re the one who’s taking umbrage here, you’re the one who’s offended, but the truth is, I’m the one who should be. You’re taking this out of context—”

  “Because I was never put into the context,” I ground out.

  “Yeah, because she knew you’d react like a chump,” Eli said, his tone bored.

  She scowled at him. “You aren’t making this easier, Eli,” she snapped. “There’s no need for that. I don’t think Austin is being a chump, and I kept it from him for the same reason I kept things from you—”

  Eli’s mouth rounded at that. “Are you shitting me? You kept what from me?”

  “Most of it,” Ethan said dryly.

  “From everyone apart from you?”

  “I had to ask him. He’s very knowledgeable, but even he didn’t have the answers I was seeking.” She rubbed her forehead, letting her fingers smooth up the center of her brow and over to the sides, where she massaged the temples slightly. “I didn’t want you to think I was crazy or that my word couldn’t be valued. If anything, that’s why I stayed quiet. Not because I don’t trust you. It’s because I don’t trust myself.”

  Of course, because I loved her, because I’d fucking die for her, that had guilt settling into me so sharply that it was like I was being bashed in the head with it.

  I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, fighting the urge to tell her I was sorry, but when she caught my eye, a rueful gleam in hers, I knew she heard my pathetic attempts at fighting the apology.

  In a rush of breath, I exhaled, and muttered, “What’s going on, mate?”

  “I wish I knew. But those dreams are more than just dreams. They’re a—” She shook her head, but her gaze had shifted from knowing to troubled. “The first time I had one, it was after the council attack. I thought it made sense for it to happen then. But when they started reocurring, it was clear it was more than just an aberration.

  “I want to say they’re a portent, but I never had those talents before. Never had the sight. Could never read dreams or analyze them.

  “Some people in my family could. I think my great grandmother had the gift, but I didn’t. I never had it. So that’s why it’s unusual for me to have this same repetitive dream.”

  “Aren’t they just nightmares? I have them too. Where I’m running and running and running, just never able to stop running, and I wake up feeling more exhausted than when I went to sleep.”

  Ethan snorted. “That probably says a lot about you, Austin.”

  I glowered at him. “What crawled up your ass today, butthead?”

  He didn’t say a word, just carried on cooing at Knight in between pissing me off.

  Jerk face.

  We’d been getting on better since we’d claimed Sabina, but that didn’t mean we weren’t averse to ramming heads every now and then.

  Now, instead of bickering every day, we went at least every two days.

  Might not have seemed like much of an improvement, but it was something. Better than nothing at any rate.

  I grumbled under my breath at him, then queried, “Well? Is it that kind of dream?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’ve had those before. This is different. It’s so real. It’s tangible. I feel like if I don’t get to the creature in time, if I don’t stop them in time, then it will reach me and kill me.”

  “At first,” Ethan intoned calmly, but his gaze was concerned as it touched our mate, “I told her it was very natural. A part of pregnancy, in fact. While I was reading up on things, I found that most women have very lucid dreams during the early trimesters. Very peculiar ones, and they’re just founded in the fluctuating hormones that are bombarding their systems. But when she persisted in having them, I knew they were different too, but I have no idea why that might be.”

  “Do you think they’re dangerous?” Eli asked, his voice husky with his concern as he settled his ass on the dining table.

  He was a braver man than me, because to me, it looked like it was going to fucking break under his weight. Instead, the antique piece of shit just groaned and absorbed the extra pounds.

  Ethan shrugged. “I’d say not, because how can a dream be dangerous? But equally, Sabina’s instincts are very strong. Incredibly strong, in fact. Plus, she leads with them. They take her where she needs to be, and I have a feeling that even if she doesn’t recognize it, every step she takes is leading her in a direction she’s destined to reach.”

  Sabina released a shaky breath. “Kali Sara, Ethan. You say stuff like that, and it gives me the willies.”

  “I can help you there,” I teased, and watched her smile bloom and blossom on her face like the first spring flowers come April.

  “Thank you, mate,” she whispered into my mind, and I registered that my place, my humor, was vital to her because with these fucking sourpusses around the table, she’d never get any jokes that would put her mind at rest.

  I shrugged but didn’t say anything, because my brothers were sniffing their disapproval at my ill-placed humor. I didn’t give a shit, so long as she found it funny. So long as it lightened her load.

  They could think I was a jackass until the cows came home, but after that, they could go fuck themselves.

  “But it’s true,” Ethan carried on. “Sabina, you keep on doing things that make no real sense, and it turns out for the best. I think we need to have faith in you. If you say that you have a bad feeling about this situation, then it’s for a reason, and we need to act accordingly and with due caution.”

  “Which means not sending down the pack enforcer and Sabina’s mate into the heart of that trouble,” Eli finished, shooting me a pointed look.

  “If you’d said that from the fucking start, I wouldn’t have said shit,” I snapped. “Don’t make out like I’m being unreasonable because I don’t like having things kept from me.”

  “You think I do?” Eli growled, his shoulders bunching as his anger started to flood the room with a powerful scent.

  Any other shifter in the vicinity would have ducked their heads, rounded their shoulders, some might have even bared their necks, but unfortunately for my big brother…we were just as strong as him and we weren’t afraid of him.

  Not even Sabina, who was definitely not alpha, who was in a league of her own, squirmed in her seat.

  And neither did Knight.

  Mother wept. What the hell kind of kid was he going to be if he could deal with his father’s dominance now?

  Sweet fuck, maybe he’d need three dads just to keep him in line.

  Rubbing my chin, I muttered, “Okay, I get it. What I don’t get is what this has to do with Sabina’s sister?”

  She shrugged. “Me either. But I have to think it’s important. That she’s important. What she can do, it will help Seth. I know it.”

  “Seth?” Eli grunted. “Weird kid.”

  I snorted at that and declared, “That’s one thing we all agree on for once. That Seth kid? Freaky as fuck.”

  Three

  Sabina

  I woke up with someone’s mouth around my nipple.

  Not the worst way to wake up, but I wouldn’t lie—even half dazed with sleep and worry, I always got nervous when someone was sucking on my boobs now.

&nb
sp; What if milk did spurt out again?

  The last time it had happened, Ethan hadn’t so much as batted an eyelash, but for me? I was still a little squeamish. A lot easily embarrassed.

  I knew it was stupid. I knew they’d seen me give birth, had watched me in the worst imaginable states, but the prospect of them licking my nipples during sex and having to taste my milk?

  Made me squirm in a way that definitely wasn’t good.

  So I did. I squirmed, then I inadvertently parted my legs and let my man in between them.

  Eli.

  I sighed.

  Kali Sara, I loved the way he touched me, held me. It was like I was a precious gem, a jewel to be protected and cosseted at all times, but equally to be rough with. I was the doll that was looked after, that was loved and played with, but I wasn’t the porcelain one that was put on a high shelf for nobody to touch.

  If anything, I figured he was the one finding it harder to constrain himself.

  There was a pack ritual after birth. The six weeks a human would have to wait to have sex were multiplied by two and a half to fifteen, so none of us had been getting any for fifteen goddamn weeks during the so called ‘milk moon’.

  I was seriously starting to feel the pinch.

  I figured it was a genius move though, because during that time, I’d had to focus on Knight, on the pack, and on sleeping, without having to worry about their needs or mine. Now that I was moving out of the dazed stages of early motherhood, I was definitely getting horny.

  “Remind me, again, why we have to wait another week to fuck?” I rumbled, my hands sliding through his hair, the nails dragging over his skull in the way I knew he loved.

  I felt his wolf keen inside my mind, and my eyes almost rolled back in my head at the sound.

  The wolf barely came out to party, so when it did, it was always a trigger that got my juices flowing.

  Beside me, Austin and Ethan groaned at the sudden tang of my arousal in the air, and it was almost amusing how that never, ever embarrassed me, but the thought of a little bit of milk on their tongue? Yeah, it had my cheeks turning bright pink.

  Amused at myself, even as I was horny as hell, I tuned into Eli’s grumble, “It’s to give you time to heal.”