Moon Rising (Mount Henley Trilogy Book 2)

by Kat Zaccard

  Sloane, my unlikely upyr ally, had confirmed that Queen Christina wasn’t only plotting to kill me, she was aligning herself with the vicious upyr nation. The Queen Regent had made a deal with the upyr king to send assassins after me. My friends had been injured, and my mentor killed. Who knew the depths of her treachery? She was a murderer, and I had to figure out a way to prove it. Queen Christina had to be stopped. My only option was to reclaim the Luna throne.

  Mom handed me a plate of pancakes, so my quest for world domination had to wait. I smiled inwardly. My sense of humor had withered lately, so it was good to know I could still laugh at myself. All I had wanted last summer was a good friend and maybe a date to the school dance; now I needed to protect the Great Pack from its reigning queen and her deadly undead allies.

  “Take it easy on the plate, dear,” Mom cautioned gently as I scraped the plate cutting into my pancakes a little too hard. She poured us each a class of orange juice then told us she was going to rehearsal. She grabbed her keys and her violin case and headed out.

  Dad excused himself shortly thereafter, leaving Shea and me alone. As soon as my mom’s car pulled out of the driveway, Shea turned on me.

  “You should be nicer to your mom; she’s really great, you know.”

  “I know, Shea.” I couldn’t help sounding irritated. “But she’s my mom, and moms are annoying. It’s in their job description.”

  Shea looked cross. “You don’t know how lucky you are.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just a joke. I know you’re trying to help me appreciate what you never had. I get that, I do. But can you get that my experience is different than yours and I might react differently than you?” Perhaps it was because we were spending every waking—and sleeping moment, for that matter—together, that we were getting on each other’s nerves a little.

  “Yeah, I get that, but you should be nicer to your mom.” she grumbled. “Let’s just drop it. I’m glad I’m here.” She smiled and I knew she meant it. Shea was pretty open and blunt with her feelings, but she also never held a grudge. She got what she needed to say off her chest and genuinely let it go. I admired that about her. I held on to my wounds a little tighter.

  After dinner, we watched a movie. We were interrupted halfway through when Adam called for Shea. After twenty minutes, I gave up and clicked off the TV. I got ready for bed and went to my room. Shea was still talking to Adam. I gave her a smile and a wave to assure her I didn’t mind. I plugged in my headphones and tried not to envy their easy conversation and obvious infatuation.

  ◆◆◆

  I awoke in a cold sweat. My ears ached from the earbuds. I pulled them out. The night was dark, and as I listened intently, it felt undisturbed. Shea was asleep on the floor near my bed. Her tousled strawberry-blonde curls covered her face, but I could hear a soft snuffle that wasn’t quite a snore. I was glad I hadn’t woken her. It must have been the dream that woke me: a flash of claws and fur, the blood-stained grass and black hair. I rolled over and punched my pillow a few times. Lying back, I tried to clear my mind with little success.

  Unbidden, the memory sprang to life. We were running through the woods, our pack; we had an escort to protect us. Sir Henry and Kulani were two of the best patrols we had. They did everything they could. No one expected an upyr to attack, let alone two. I rubbed my eyes, trying not to see the deranged blood-red eyes of the upyr; trying not to hear the sickening squelch of my mentor’s throat being torn out. I tried not to remember the howl of Jack’s grief superimposed in my dreamscape, though in reality, he hadn’t arrived until afterwards.

  I rolled over with a whimper, trying to muffle the sound. My body tensed. I pressed my face in to my pillow and my hands against my ears. I couldn’t stop the jumbled memories any more than the aching pit in my gut.

  Deciding there was no hope for it, I realized I wouldn’t get back to sleep anytime soon. I snuck out of bed, careful not to wake Shea. I crept downstairs and out of the house. I gingerly closed the door behind me with a quiet click, careful not to let the screen door slam, and sighed a breath of relief to be outside. My parents lived in the town of Greenville, but our house was on the edge of a large gully with a small ravine and a patch of woods behind the property. It wasn’t expansive enough for a proper run, but it was better than nothing. I shifted into my wolf skin, shook out my fur with satisfaction, and trotted into the ravine.

  I knew it was a little risky to shift in the city. If someone spotted a giant wolf in town, they could organize animal control or, worse yet, a hunting party. Still, it was torture to wait until the full moon when we had arrangements to visit our pack mate, Nadia, for our necessary full moon shift. The moon was new, so at least the darkness would help hide me. I felt fully myself and completely free.

  I sniffed around picking up the scent of Levi and presumably his partner. I knew it was doubly risky to be out so soon after confronting our stalkers, er, protection detail. But the new moon provided more than darkness for me. I was the only werewolf who could shift on the new moon. Not even Slivers, the strongest werewolves among us, could shift when the night sky was dark.

  A werewolf is larger than a normal wolf. In my human form, I have dark auburn hair that falls in loose curls past my shoulders. My eyes are a vague color my mother likes to call dark hazel, but seem more like dark brown to me, maybe a hint of gold and green. I don’t know, it depends on what I’m wearing, I guess. When I’m a wolf, I have a brown and russet hide with dark brown stockings. I’ve only seen my wolf reflected in ponds and streams, but I think there’s something foxy about my fur color. I smirked to myself. I did not just think that! At least, that was not what I meant. I felt my cheeks blush in the dark and almost laughed at myself aloud. It was an odd sensation, feeling amused even if a bit self-deprecating. As was usual lately, humor fizzled fast. I tried to focus on gratitude when I felt the abyss of grief yawn and blink at me.

  I’d learned last year that I’d inherited more than a furry tail from my birth parents. Queen Marguerite and Harold were both from very old clans. My birth mother’s family was said to be descended from the Great Queen herself. Centuries ago, the Great Queen was the first alpha queen to gather the werewolves of many clans into one Great Pack. She was said to possess powers beyond the average wolf. Her story is legend and most likely blown into mythical proportions. But there was at least grain of truth.

  Jack had told me that my mother was a true alpha like me. She too could sense her pack and telepathically communicate with her generals and pack mates. But my alpha powers included more than my heightened senses. I could feel the brain signatures of other wolves like a sensation somewhere between a color and a smell. I was starting to sense deception or honesty from wolves as well. And it seemed that I could even influence other’s actions, for a few moments at least. I’ve stopped one enemy in her tracks for five full seconds while I evaded escape.

  And of course, I alone could shift on the new moon. Most werewolves shifted on the three nights of the full moon. With time and training, many learned to shift between the half-moons. The gifted could shift between the first quarter waxing moon and third quarter waning moon. But only the truly lucky could shift when only the crescent moon is in the sky. We called them Slivers. Only a handful of Weres knew that I was already a Sliver. And even fewer knew I could shift on the new moon.

  I tried not to think that I was weird even for a teenage werewolf. It was nights like these that I loved being able to shift when no one else could. I was less likely to get caught by patrols, for one, and the dark night was beyond magical. I loved my full moon runs with the pack, but they were bright and loud and crowded. My head ached from the cacophony of thoughts, the bombardment of feelings, and the excitement of comradery. On these secret dark moon nights, it was just me and the squirrels. I loved the solitude.

  “Princess!”

  I pulled up short as a petite blonde jumped out from behind an oak tree.

  I skittered to a stop and shifted into my human skin. I scraped
my knee as I jumped to my feet. Wincing, I glared at the upyr. “Holy crap, Sloane! You scared me.”

  “What are you doing out here?” she demanded.

  “What am I doing here? What you doing here? This is my back yard.”

  “Your parents’ property ended one-point-five kilometers that way.” She pointed.

  Okay… “Okay.” Clearly, I was not firing all cylinders tonight!

  “Princess, do you know you have two royal guards in town monitoring you?”

  “Yes. I met them this morning.”

  “Well, I’ve been keeping an eye on them for weeks. They do not appear to mean you harm other than annoyance, I imagine.”

  “So you’re following them, not me?”

  “When I heard werewolves were deployed from the Winter Palace to protect the Luna heir, I had to be sure they weren’t sent by the current werewolf queen.”

  I hadn’t realized I was doubly protected, but I should’ve known. Sloane had been my creepy vampire guardian angel since before I knew upyr even existed.

  “Well, I appreciate that.” I didn’t know what else to say. Her eyebrow raised, and I suddenly felt self-conscious, being naked and all.

  “You really should not run in the city, but it still impresses me that you can run on a dark moon. Your mother could not.”

  I forgot my embarrassment, curiosity piqued. “Really? Did you spend much time together?”

  Sloane smiled. I tried not to shudder. Even the most well-meaning smile looked intimidating on her pale face. Her dark eyes were black as coal, only slightly rimmed in red. She must have fed recently. Another shudder. I’d have to ask her about her current feeding habits.

  “Not really, though time is relative. We weren’t … friends,” the word seemed to stick oddly in her mouth, “but we got on. Our meetings were covert for obvious reasons, so we often met deep in the woods. She had to remind me regularly not to bother when the moon was dark.”

  Sloane and my birth mother had been secretly negotiating a peace treaty between the upyr and the werewolves. That all fell apart when my mother died and a new king took over the upyr. When Sloane learned of the plot against me, she left the upyr nest to track the assassins and protect me. While Kulani had died to protect me, it was thanks to Diego and Sloane that the rest of us survived that day. I knew I could trust her, but I couldn’t tell anyone else about my upyr ally. Shea and Diego knew, of course, since they’d witnessed Sloane decapitate an upyr assassin. Shea didn’t like it, but she’d agreed to keep her secret. She was getting good at keeping people’s secrets.

  “It’s weird to think of my birth mother hanging out with you at my age.”

  Sloane shrugged. It was a very human gesture. “Most creatures age and die. I do not. At least, no longer.”

  “Been there done that!” I quipped.

  She raised her eyebrows at me. “Yes. I have been there and done that,” she carefully articulated each word.

  I muffled a laugh. I didn’t want to stifle her attempts at modernity.

  “What are your full moon plans?” Sloane asked.

  “We’re going to Nadia’s. Then there’s the council meeting. We’ll be back at school by September.”

  “The Winter Palace is not safe, Your Majesty.”

  “Please call me Alice. And I know that, but I have to go. I have to convince the council to annul my stupid betrothal to Logan. I doubt Christina will try anything overt. She’s too cunning for that. It would be suspicious if I died at the palace under her watch.”

  I was definitely convincing myself more than Sloane, and I felt my resolve weaken. I didn’t like to think about the fact that someone wanted me dead. Like, literally dead. Gulp.

  “You must allow your security detail to attend. Mount Henley and the Winter Palace are more heavily guarded since the attack at school. But it is extremely difficult for me to protect you within the werewolf community. Please, Your—Alice, do not be reckless. Security is a simple solution.”

  I sighed and agreed with Sloane’s reasoning. I cautioned her about leaving her undead scent in the woods behind my house. “I wouldn’t want Levi and his partner to think the upyr had invaded.”

  Sloane grinned. “Not to worry.” In the blink of an eye, she snatched a squirrel out of the nearest tree and ripped it in half. Dropping the carcass, she stated breezily, “That will mask my scent.”

  My eyes popped, my jaw hung slack, and I gagged a little. “Hey, those are my squirrel friends!”

  Sloane looked puzzled. “Sorry. I won’t hunt on your land again, but I did need to cover my tracks.”

  “Okay, okay.” I hugged myself and hummed a few bars of Circle of Life. “Poor little squirrel.”

  I looked back at Sloane, but she was already gone. No squirrel funeral for her. Shea would understand, but then I’d have to admit to sneaking out.

  Thinking about Shea, I decided to shift back and head home. She’d be worried if she woke up and found me gone. She might also get a little envious. She’d been hounding me to teach her how to shift outside the full moon. I didn’t know how I did it, so I really didn’t know how to teach her. But I’d agreed to try. We’d been practicing hard to add more days under the moon with some success by the end of the school year. When we went camping last month, we were pleased to see Shea could shift two nights outside the standard three nights of the full moon. We were going to Nadia’s a few days before the full moon, and that’d be a perfect opportunity to practice.

  A twig snapped, making me pause. I crouched and looked around stealthily. I tuned in to my senses, sniffing the air and straining to hear any unfamiliar noise. I was greeted only by the sounds of crickets and the occasional owl hoot. After a moment more, I trotted up to the back of the house. I shifted, put my pajamas back on, then snuck inside and up to my room.

  The floor was empty. Shea was just coming back from the bathroom.

  “I see you went out, again,” she accused.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” I replied, but she looked cross. “Bad dream,” I added.

  Shea’s face softened and she came over and wrapped her arms around me.

  “Kulani?” she asked. I nodded, and unbidden, the tears came. She held me while I cried a moment, then I pulled myself together.

  “I’m sorry. It’s not like you didn’t lose her, too, but I’m the one that keeps falling apart.”

  “We all grieve in different ways, Alice. It’s okay.” She hugged me tight then tucked me back into bed. She squeezed my hand goodnight, but I pulled her closer. She smiled and agreed to stay with me. We crammed into my small bed, and fell asleep like a pile of puppies.

  Chapter 3

  The week went by with luxurious banality and nothing major to report. Levi was still tailing us around town. He pretended not to see us pretend not to see him. That was as good as we could hope for. We had another Carianne sighting at the movie theatre, this time with Nick in tow. Shea was enjoying the spectacle of putting faces to names in my stories, but I preferred avoidance at all cost. We saw them making out in the back of the movie theatre after the summer Rom Com. We left the theatre and ducked into a nearby boutique to avoid a confrontation.

  The door chime sang our presence and a cloud of patchouli and sandalwood assaulted our noses. It was one of those New Age places filled with crystals and incense, books on herbalism and philosophy, and statues and amulets from around the world. We hurried to the back of the shop away from the windows.

  We were browsing the tea, when Shea started sneezing. I tried to hand her a tissue, but started sneezing as well. The owner of the shop, a short, older woman with long greying blonde hair and flowing skirts, came through a beaded curtain and threw up her hands in dismay.

  “You two! Why are you messing with the wolfsbane? Don’t they teach you anything at that school?”

  I vaguely registered what she said, trying desperately to see through my streaming eyes. Shea was worse. Her coughing sounded restricted and I wondered if she had a peanut allergy or something.
Before I could ask her, I heard a scuffle and the sound of her coughing faded. A moment passed, then rough hands grabbed me under the armpits and dragged me from the room through the beaded curtain. The woman was stronger than she looked.

  The shop owner left me on the floor and soon returned with a steaming basin and a towel. She set the bowl down and positioned my head over the steaming vapors of what smelled like potent tea. She draped the towel over my head, tenting the steaming bowl, and told me to breathe deep. I tried, feeling my constricted airways start to ease as I breathed in the pungent steam.

  Slowly, my lungs cleared and my eyes stopped watering. My breathing slowed, and I felt my shoulders release tension. I removed the towel and gulped in a few breaths of cool, clear air. A cup of tea was thrust into my hands. I looked up at the shop owner. She peered at me, then nodded, seemingly satisfied. She then went to pour a cup of tea for Shea, who sat nearby with a similar basin and towel.

  “If you’ve quite recovered, you can get up off the floor now and have tea at the table.”

  Getting up, I realized the back of the shop must be her home and we were in the kitchen. It was small but clean. The tiled floor was spotless and the counters clear. There was a floor-to-ceiling shelf filled with more spices and herbs than I’ve seen in a grocery store, each carefully labeled in neat cursive curls. I brought my cup of tea to the table and sat down. Shea joined me.

  The shop owner sat down and stared at us. I waited for her to speak, but she didn’t. Finally I broke the silence. “Thank you for helping us. I don’t know what happened.”

  The old woman snorted. “You don’t know what happened? That’s the problem, then, isn’t it? Why in the world would you pick up a satchel of wolfsbane?”

  “What’s wolfsbane?” I asked as Shea groaned.

  “Aconite,” said the old woman and Shea at the same time. Startled, they grinned at each other.