Bad Moon Rising (9 page)

She stood frozen in place while Summer’s voice in her head screamed
run!
Knowing Summer was with her, in spirit if not body, freed her feet. She heard a groan behind her as she lurched for the door.

Flinging it open, she stumbled off a small porch and skidded to a halt into the night.

The shack sat in a large clearing that appeared to be surrounded by 62

Loribelle Hunt

woods. It was too dark to tell for sure, and with no idea where she was, she had no choice but to give her neglected sixth sense free rein. Summer was always harping on her about not practicing. If she got out of this, she’d become an apt pupil.
Not if, Tara. Just run.
The full moon hung low in the sky, and she took off in its direction when she heard a low growl and sensed movement from the door.

She made the tree line and hit a brick wall. Leaning her head back, she looked into the feral eyes of Trey’s friend, Jackson. He grinned and put a finger to his lips to signal silence. Snarling echoed through the clearing and she spun in time to see Trey in wolf form leaping through the air at Jones. They crashed together and fell to ground, each jumping right into the fight and going for the other’s throat. This was no test of strength.

This was a battle to the death. Tara’s heart lodged in her throat as she watched the older wolf tear a long gash into Trey’s flank. He growled in outrage and wrestled Jones to the ground, jaw clamped over this throat.

With a sickening crack, she heard his neck break.

Her body was overcome with shudders and she sank to the ground, head in her hands. Someone was sobbing, loud gulping sounds, and she wished the idiot would just shut up long enough for her to get her fuzzy brain working again. It didn’t help when she realized she was the idiot. Crying never helped, but once started she couldn’t stop.

Someone lifted her up and she clung to his arms when she realized it was Trey. He carried her around the cabin and put her in his SUV before turning to murmur something to Jackson and the others she hadn’t identified. She didn’t care. She just wanted to curl up and sleep.

* * * * *

It was several hours later when the tapping woke her. A glance out the bedroom’s window showed the moon high in the sky, and she judged it sometime after midnight. Trey was curled protectively around her, and taking care not to disturb him, she moved out of his grasp. Grabbing a robe, she tread on light feet down the stairs and to the door.

She didn’t check before opening it wide, knowing Summer waited 63

Bad Moon Rising: Lunar Mates Book 2

on the other side. The evening in the woods seemed to have opened the floodgate of her powers. She felt it flow through her freely for the first time in years and reveled in the beauty of it. She’d expected her cousin to come.

In mutual silence they went to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee.

Trey found them there at dawn, heads together, whispering like schoolgirls. They looked up when he entered, guilt plain on their faces. He looked from one to the other before filling a mug and sitting at the other end of the table.

“What?” he asked.

With a sad smile, Tara shook her head. “I need to go home, Trey.

Summer’s going to give me a ride.”

He snorted. She couldn’t be serious. “You can’t go. The bond, remember?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll only be across town. I just need some space. With Jones dead, there’s no reason I can’t.”

His wolf growled a denial and he wanted to throw his head back and howl. God save him from independent witches. He could force her to stay, but there was no telling what she might do in retaliation. He could see the difference in her, see power in her. He didn’t want to test her newfound strength on himself. More than that, he wanted her to choose him.

He closed his eyes and thought fast. He had to let her go long enough to see they couldn’t take the separation, but would that be long enough for her to come back to him out of want and not just need? This was worse than the pain and rage that had taken him over when Jones threatened her life. There was an enemy to fight then. This fight was against his own nature. It appeared he did have another dragon to slay for her. He’d give her time. At least for as long as he could stand.

With a curt nod, he stood and tried to keep his feelings on the matter remote. “Take your time, but I’m not letting you go.”

He turned and exited the house.

64

Loribelle Hunt

Tara rushed to pack her things then stood in the foyer and gave the house one last longing look. Trey thought the mating bond would bring her back, but Summer had brought her the secret of Jack’s distance. Tinnie had a spell to break the bond and had left the secret in one of her journals.

Summer dropped her off at her house and she went to the storage box that held Tinnie’s papers. She found it in the third book and made a list of the ingredients she would need for the spell, then headed for the bathtub. It could wait. Right now she needed relief from the urge to return to Trey that crawled through her.
It’s just sex
.

Two days later she prowled through the house repeating it like a mantra.
Just sex. Just sex
. If that was true, why hadn’t she used the spell?

Stepping into her small kitchen, she eyed the book lying open and waiting on the table. Sighing, she pulled a chair out and sat. She could break the bond, but it wouldn’t change anything. She was in love with Trey Williams. Did it matter how they’d come together? Only to her pride.

She smiled and looked around, thinking about his big empty house, and dug the yellow pages out of a bottom kitchen drawer. An opportune cancellation opened a slot the next day, and she went in search of boxes and newspaper. She even knew what to do with the spell.

* * * * *

By the third morning, he’d had enough and decided to go get her.

65

Bad Moon Rising: Lunar Mates Book 2

He was going crazy from her absence. He needed her in a physical sense of course, but he’d also gotten used to her being around. He missed her.

He had to find a way to convince her to come home.

Annoyance coursed through him when he turned onto her street and saw the moving van backed up in her driveway. Where the hell did she think she was going? He’d given her space to come
back
to him, not take off. Parking in front of the house, he stalked up the path and inside.

He was forced to dodge two men carrying a sofa and it stoked his anger.

His wolf growled for release.
No no no
. The key to this situation was control.

Following the sound of rustling paper and the radio, he found her in the kitchen, placing a wrapped plate in a cardboard box. The cabinet doors all stood open, shelves empty. She was making fast work of it, whatever her plan was. He stopped, blocking the archway, and crossed his arms over his chest, feet spread wide. He knew it was an aggressive stance, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. She looked up and smiled, reached for a roll of packing tape, and attacked the box.

“Hey,” she said. “I expected you earlier.”

“You did, did you?” he ground out through clenched teeth. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Excuse me, ma’am?” a male voice said behind him. “We’re almost done. Did you have anything in here you wanted on the truck?”

She grabbed Trey’s hand and pulled him out of the way. “Yes, this is the last box here.”

Dropping his hand, she hefted it over. The mover turned with it and left the house. She moved to the opposite end of the table, and he looked with curiosity at the open book, small cauldron, and another smaller box on the floor at her feet. It was the first sign he’d seen she was really a witch.

“I know how they did it,” she said.

He closed his eyes and reached for calm. He had the feeling he’d walked into the middle of the wrong conversation. Wanting to get to the
come home now
part, he decided to push her. He was surprised when the wrong question came out.

66

Loribelle Hunt

“How who did what?”

She ripped a page from the book. On closer examination, it looked like an old journal. Waving the paper in the air to get his attention, she pulled a lighter out of the box.

“This is one of Tinnie’s journals. She and Jack didn’t like each other.” She snorted. “That’s an understatement. They couldn’t stand each other. It took her a few years, but she found a way to break the mate bond.”

Ice ran through his veins.

“It doesn’t matter if you break it, Tara. I won’t let you go. It won’t change the way we feel about each other.”

A beautiful smile spread across her face, and he fought the urge to pull her to him and hide her damned book.

“I know. So I have a gift for you.”

She set the lighter to the bottom corner of the page and flicked it.

Flames raced up the side and she dropped it in the black pot in front of her. Blue flames shot up in the air and the fire poofed out as quickly as it’d started.

Peace settled through him, but his desire for her still raged in his blood. With relief he realized she hadn’t broken the bond, but she’d destroyed the spell.

“I won’t use it,” she said softly, stepping around the table. “And no one else will either.”

Unable to resist any longer, he grabbed her and crushed her slight body against his.

“You’re coming home,” he whispered in demand.

She relaxed into to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Nodding, her answer was muffled but clear against his chest.

“I’m coming home.”

The End

67

Bad Moon Rising: Lunar Mates Book 2

Author Bio

A native of the South, is it any wonder Loribelle has a love of story telling?

After a few bumps along the way and stints as an Army MP, a waitress, a student, and a wedding photographer, this mother of three has turned to writing fulltime. She is a staff reviewer for Romance Divas and a member of RWA. She’s looking forward to her first release with Cobblestone Press in 2006,
Bound By Love
.

68

Loribelle Hunt

Also available from Cobblestone Press, LLC

Crossing Borders by Cora Zane © 2006

It came from deep in the woods, a low, lonely howl that tugged at Laney’s soul. She heard it and her ears pricked, her body suddenly going tense. She looked up from the book she was reading in the den of her small cabin and waited, wondering if the sound would come again.

Seconds passed. A minute. The teasing notes rose higher and crested on the balmy night air, causing a slow, tingling heat to creep over her body. Laney shivered and her nipples turned into hard peaks. Hearing that sad, tormented cry made her breathing ragged and her heart quicken.

What was it about that voice?

When the haunted notes finally faded, she shook herself from her sensual fog and snarled. This had to stop. For four nights now, she’d been hearing that same relentless baying. The new neighboring pack was going to start a war with her brother if they didn’t back off the border and stop calling out within hearing range of the wolves under Seth’s protection.

Nerves jangling, she turned her book over and got up from the couch. Anger and frustration mounted within her as she moved quickly through the house to the back porch. She’d promised to watch over things and take care of any emergency pack business while Seth was away for 69

Bad Moon Rising: Lunar Mates Book 2

the week, but she had a sinking suspicion that confronting the alpha of a rival pack wasn’t what he had in mind when he’d left his instructions. Be that as it may, she had to do something. Seth and the other males weren’t going to return for another two days, and that persistent calling was really starting to get under her skin.

Laney stepped off the porch into the moonlight and crossed the shadow‐mottled yard with determined purpose. The wind rose up and swirled around her, strengthening the odors of pine and moist earth‐‐and something else she couldn’t quite identify. The combined scents filled her lungs and made her feel strangely restless as she headed toward the tree line that began a short distance from the house.

She walked straight into the woods, choosing to remain in her human form even though her jeans and bootlaces kept snagging on the briars as she moved over the rough ground. It would be faster traveling in the form of the wolf, but she preferred the slight sense of protection wearing clothes offered her.

Dressed or not, she knew going into the woods unescorted was potentially dangerous. Seth would likely strangle her if he ever found out about her going near the border alone, but it would be so much worse for everyone if he came home and discovered members of a rival pack stirring close to the border, marking their territory. She had to reach this rogue male and talk sense into him before anyone else from her pack could answer him and stir up trouble.

She walked maybe ten feet farther into the woods before the male’s call rose up again. The notes struck her with the force of a silver bullet, shooting hot sensation from her head straight to her toes. Her breathing hitched. Her senses swam. A tiny tremor wracked her small body. Now that she was closer to the source of the call, the lure was more pure, more potent. Alluring.

Laney stopped in her tracks and clamped her eyes shut tight as heat pooled thick and wet between her thighs, soaking her panties. A tender ache started inside her and she gritted her teeth to hold it at bay.

Still, the notes played over her skin like the brush of velvet fingers. The sound
beckoned
her, called to her inner beast until she shook with pent‐up 70

Loribelle Hunt

desire.

A desperate, cloying need to return the male’s call had her pussy clenching in anticipation. Unaware of what she was doing, she ran trembling hands over her small, firm breasts and squeezed, shuddering as a bolt of erotic energy zipped through her veins. Her bones creaked and shifted. She closed her eyes and fought the urge to embrace the change…