Blue Moon: Blood Moon Trilogy #3 (27 page)

We watched as the cops surveyed the area, using their flashlights to look into the darkness to find the attacker. In the distance, I could see three people in civilian clothes—a man and two women, likely in their early twenties and fresh from club-hopping. Even from my spot in the shadows, I could see the way the women wobbled as they stood by, holding each other with terror in their eyes. Their blonde and brown hair was slightly mussed, and their mascara smudged from crying. The man sat on the back of an open ambulance while an EMT examined his neck and shoulder. I tried squinting my eyes to get a better look at the bloodied spot on his neck, but I was too far away.

I moved to get closer, but Nick grabbed my arm and stopped me, shaking his head. The Alpha in me, narrowed its eyes and bared its teeth in warning, but the cop in me knew he was right and submitted to his silent request. While we waited, I picked up bits and pieces of the information, but it was all so jumbled and nothing added up—it reminded me of that game most people played as kids where you sat in a line and whispered something in one another’s ears, passing it down the line and seeing how the story changed by the end. If I was going to get the true story, I was going to have to get it straight from the source: the victim.

So, we waited some more. The cops cleared the scene, and the EMTs decided that the man was okay to drive after tending to his wounds. They’d wanted to take him to the hospital, but he refused, telling them he’d drive himself. For some reason, they didn’t argue with him, instead packing up their things and driving away.

This was our chance. Nick and I moved across the park silently, eyes always on the victim as he led the two women toward his vehicle. He was just unlocking the driver’s side door to his new Ford Escape when I stepped out of the darkness while Nick hung back so as not to spook him.

“Excuse me?” I said softly, hoping not to startle him further. He turned quickly, and I smiled, pulling my jacket back slightly to briefly flash my badge; I was far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to read that it was Scottsdale PD and not Calgary RCMP. “I’m sorry, I know you’re heading to the hospital right now, but I just had a couple of follow up questions before the ER potentially destroys any evidence left by your attacker.”

“Look, lady,” he said, unlocking the car so the girls could climb in.

“Detective Leighton.”

“I’ve already talked to the cops.”

“I know,” I assured him gently, adjusting my posture to appear like less of a threat. “But there are still a few things I’m unclear of.” I eyed his bandaged neck, noticing how red the skin was around it. I took another step closer, eyebrows pulling together when I saw the dark purple veins spider-webbing up his neck. I’d never seen anything like it before on any of the victims that were about to turn. Was this what it looked like when a vampire was unable to finish the job? It looked like it was infected already.

The man noticed me staring and stepped back toward the open car door. Before I could say anything, the blonde girl leaned over the center console. “Corey, come on.”

“Listen, I’ve got to go. I’m sure the cops have everything in some kind of file folder thing.”

Desperation clawed at me, forcing me two more steps forward. “Corey, wait.” He did, and I stumbled for words. It was ridiculous since this was
my job
. “I…that is, your neck. It looks like it might be getting infected.” I met his eyes, holding his gaze, hoping to draw him in and gain his trust. “Would you mind if I had a look?”

He hesitated, but when he released a sigh and stepped forward, I mentally patted myself on the back. Carefully, he peeled the tape away and pulled the gauze back. I cringed when I saw the gouges in his flesh, skin torn jaggedly, held together by butterfly bandages until he could get to the ER for a proper cleaning and stitches.

“It came out of nowhere,” he said without coercion as he held the bandage down for me.

I pulled out my phone in a silent request, and he nodded his permission before I snapped a couple of pictures while he continued his story.

“We’d been out having a good time—Casey, Marisa, and me. We decided to take a walk through the park since it wasn’t that cold out. Everything was fine and then it slammed into me.”

That was the second time he’d described his attacker in that way, so I inquired. “It?” I reached out to touch the skin surrounding the area, but pulled back when the heat emanating from the wound was almost unbearable.

Even for me.

“At first, I thought it was a man. The girls screamed as I fell to the ground, struggling to push it off of my back. The growls soon drowned the girls out, and then the entire world slipped away when it bit down.”

I stopped looking at the bite mark, raising my eyes to his as I tried to calm my pounding heart. This all sounded familiar… Looked familiar… felt familiar…

“It was over a couple seconds later—I think. I don’t know, I guess it could have been longer. All I know is I opened my eyes and saw a huge shadow running away before disappearing into the darkness. And then the cops showed up thanks to Marisa calling them.”

The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to articulate them without choking on them. I knew I had to try. “Was…was it an animal? A w-wolf?”

Corey sighed. “I can’t be sure. It was dark, and I’d just…” He hesitated again, and I knew why; I could smell the marijuana on him.

“You’d been smoking,” I finished for him. “It’s fine.”

Shaking his head as if pulling himself out of some kind of trance, he slipped the bandage back over his neck and stepped toward his car. “Am I good to go now, Detective?”

Smiling, I nodded. “Absolutely. Thank you for your time. Take care of that wound, okay?”

“Will do.” He climbed behind the wheel and pulled away, his taillights shrinking in the distance as Nick emerged from the darkness.

“Damn vamps,” he growled, and I shook my head.

“I don’t think it was them,” I said, voice quivering as I turned to him. I shook with fear, wondering if we now had some stray werewolves to deal with. “That wasn’t a vampire bite.”

“There’s no way strays would hunt on Pack land,” Nick argued adamantly.

I scrolled to the photo I’d taken and thrust it in Nick’s face. “This isn’t a vampire bite. A vampire would have killed all three of them.”

Nick looked at the photo skeptically. “That doesn’t look like a wolf bite either.” He looked at me pointedly. “You should remember all-too clearly what it looked and felt like.”

“I do,” I agreed firmly. “My shoulder was shredded and burned like a son of a bitch.”

“That’s
not
a wolf bite.”

Not wanting to argue here, I put my phone away. “There’s only one way we can be certain,” I told him, piquing his curiosity. “I want to see the other victims.”

“It’s late, Brooke.”

“Tomorrow, then,” I bargained. “For tonight, let’s look around the area and see what we can pick up.”

Nick nodded as he started to pull his clothes off. “We’ll be able to pick up more as wolves, plus we’re less likely to be asked what we’re doing if someone sees us. We will likely be mistaken for wild wolves roaming the city. It happens often.”

Knowing he was right, I started to strip along with him, and before long, we were shifting and roaming around the park with our noses to the ground. We came across a few new scents, and there were a couple times I picked up the stench of death, indicating a vampire had been here in the last few hours. It was faint, though, making me wonder if it was earlier that night, and had nothing to do with the attack.

After combing the entire park, Nick and I shifted back. We were just pulling our shirts on, discussing how I wanted to search the other crime scenes from the last couple days, when the breeze picked up, bringing with it a familiar scent that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Well, well, well,” he said in a voice that I once longed to hear, but now made me want to rip his larynx from his throat.

Nick whipped around to find Bobby standing in the middle of the parking lot with a cocky smirk on his face.

My rage spiked, remembering how he had my parents and Cordelia. “Where are they, you sick son of a bitch?” I snarled, marching toward him.

His expression shifted to one of mock-offence as he laid a hand over his unbeating heart. “Watch your mouth. That’s
our
mother you’re talking about.”

A feral scream flew from my mouth as I lunged for him, but Nick stopped me, grabbing me around the waist. “
My
mother,” I corrected him, struggling against Nick’s strong embrace. “You tell me where they are, you twisted freak, or I swear to God…”

“I don’t know why you’re so upset, sis,” Bobby said, making me cringe against Nick. “All I’ve ever wanted was to reunite our family.” My stomach flipped and lurched as I feared the worst. Bobby only smiled. “Don’t worry. They’re still very much human.” A pause. A malicious smirk. “For now.”

I rushed forward again, and this time Nick was barely able to grab me and hold me back. “If you touch one hair on their heads—”

“Relax, sis. Turning them now wouldn’t be conducive to my plan to reunite us all…especially now that our family is growing.”

My body went still in Nick’s arms, and they loosened around me. I could sense his confusion mingling with my own as I tried to decipher what Bobby had just said.

Was he out there attacking these people to rebuild his army of vampires? How was that possible without draining them, though? I needed to look at the dossiers to see if a vampire could be created from a single bite.

Pleased with himself for having confused us, he took a couple steps back toward the darkness, eyes bright and mischievous. “I have them on the grounds of Stampede Park.” This meant nothing to me, but I was sure Nick knew what he was talking about. Something flashed in his eyes just then—anger, a warning—and he narrowed them at me. “Come alone, Brooke. I’ll know if you bring anyone with you…and I’d hate for Mommy or Daddy-dearest to pay the price.”

I felt Nick tense behind me, likely ready to argue that there was no way in hell he would let me go alone, when Bobby spoke again. His voice was so cold it sent a shiver up my spine. “We won’t be able to complete your transition for a while yet”—his eyes dropped to my stomach, and his grin widened, flashing his fangs—“but I look forward to meeting the whelp.”

My right hand settled over the slight bulge of my belly as dread dropped like a lead weight in it. Bile churned, and I felt nauseated all of a sudden, remembering the envelope that was probably still crumpled in my jeans from a few days ago. That was when I understood his comment about our family growing. The image of him hurting an innocent child—my child—was burned into my mind. It filled me with an overwhelming urge to rip his throat out.

“I’m excited to see if the merge works on something so young…so pure and innocent.”

And then he was gone, leaving me standing there in shock with Nick staring blankly at me, his own bewilderment hanging so heavy it was almost suffocating.

B
y the time we arrived back at the house, everyone else had turned in. Before we left the park, I suggested we track Bobby back to where he was holding Cordelia and my parents. Shockingly, Nick refused, arguing that we weren’t prepared and had no idea what we’d be walking in on. I considered pulling rank, ordering him as his Alpha, but the cop in me knew he was right; if we rushed in there alone, not knowing what awaited us, there was a high probability we’d both be captured or killed.

The rest of the drive back had been quiet, the air thick with tension and unspoken questions. I could tell Nick wanted to ask me about what Bobby had said back at the park, but something stopped him. Probably my current state of shock. Bobby’s final words before he fled ran on loop in my mind, freaking me out and spiking my anxiety.

I entered the house before Nick, heading straight for the living room where our things were still located. Nick shut the front door, sliding the lock into place and soon joined me. I could feel his eyes on me, watching as I filtered through the clothes in our suitcase, looking for the jeans I wore the night Miranda and Marcus had died.

When I found them, I had to contain a triumphant shout, respecting the late hour and everyone sleeping throughout the house. This victorious feeling was soon extinguished when I smelled the fresh detergent and fabric softener.

“What’s wrong?” Nick finally asked, and when I turned around, I saw him sitting on the couch, arms resting on his thighs, hands clasped, and posture slumped. “You’ve been tense since we saw your bro—” He cut himself off with a dry laugh. “Bobby.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat felt tight, making it difficult to utter a sound. Finally, my larynx relaxed. “There was an envelope in the pocket of these jeans,” I managed to whisper.

Nick lifted his head, his blue eyes troubled, eyebrows pulled together, and he pushed himself to his feet. He crossed the room, holding eye contact. For the first time since I returned, I could sense some kind of conflict. I could see it in the stormy blue of his irises.

Once he was next to me, he knelt down and reached into the pocket of the suitcase, producing the wrinkled envelope. My heartbeat picked up, my skin prickling with sweat as I worried that he’d opened it and just not said anything. He stood slowly, turning and handing me the envelope. My hands trembled as I reached for it, afraid to turn it over and find the seal broken.

It wasn’t, and I lifted my wary gaze. “You didn’t open it?”

“Doesn’t have my name on it,” he replied softly, expression no less concerned or hesitant. “What is it?”

Sighing, my exhaustion from the last few days finally grabbed me, weighing me down like cinderblocks tied to my feet and pulling me to the depths of the ocean. I flopped down on the couch, staring at the envelope, turning it over again and memorizing Miranda’s elegant handwriting.

The couch dipped next to me, Nick’s thigh brushing mine, and his hand came into view, covering my own. “Brooke.”

I took a deep breath, trying to keep the shudder from it, but failing miserably. “I’d forgotten about it with everything that’s happened,” I mumbled, my eyes burning and threatening tears. “The other day, when Marcus and I were sparring in the yard before I…”

“Before you blacked out,” Nick finished for me.

I nodded. “Miranda said something after you left the room, and I think a part of me was just too afraid of the possibility to acknowledge it sooner.”

Another moment of silence fell between us, and Nick turned to face me, propping his leg on the couch between us. “Brooke, you’re freaking me out. What did she say?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it if it weren’t true. Would it freak him out? Would he be excited? And what if he was either of those things, but the bloodwork proved the opposite, only disappointing him? It wouldn’t be fair. But would it be fair to find out and tell him the results afterward?

Being a grownup sucked on the best of days… Being a grownup
and
a werewolf sucked even more at the moment.

“She thought I might be…” I paused, my apprehension causing my voice to waver. I glanced at him, eyes lowering to his mouth, distracting me as I remembered the shape and pressure of his lips against my own. I shook the thought loose, because he deserved to know the truth.  I found a reserve of confidence buried deep, and I harnessed it before saying, “Pregnant.”

Hesitant, I glanced up at Nick through the corner of my eye. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Somehow, his blank expression of disbelief and shock seemed about right.

“Pregnant?” he finally stammered after a long awkward silence.

“Possibly,” I whispered with a slight tilt of my head. “She did a blood test.” I tapped the envelope against my fingertips.

“So that’s what Bobby was talking about.” He fell silent for another moment, his mouth opening and closing a couple of times before he swallowed thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing beneath his scruff. “Open it.”

I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking, so I had to close my eyes and take several deep breaths before I tore the envelope. The piece of paper inside was tri-folded, and it took me another moment to gather the courage to open it. When I finally did, the words were blurry for a second before coming into focus. I scanned the information at the top, making my way to the end where the final result was…

“It’s positive,” I croaked, my stomach rolling as I stood up and paced the room, pressing the back of my hand against my mouth and fighting back a sob. This wasn’t how I saw any of this going, and now was not the time to be growing another little person.

“So you’re…” Nick started, sounding uncertain he understood. “Pregnant?”

Hearing it come from him forced the reality of the situation into place, and I stopped dead in my tracks. “Oh, God,” I sighed, dropping my hand to my side and turning to him. I still wasn’t sure how to read the expression on his face. His concerned gaze held mine, and the air in the room became too thick. Or my lungs were becoming too small. Whatever it was, I was having trouble breathing, and my legs started to tremble. Gravity was about to win. Nick was fast, racing across the room and pulling me against him. I clung to him, desperate for his comfort and support as my entire body shook.

When his hand moved through my hair, lips pressing against my temple, I was finally able to let go of my worry, and I started crying. “Baby, everything is going to be fine. We’ll figure this out together.”

Nick slowly lowered us to the couch, pulling me across his lap, as I absorbed his words. I tried to believe them, but I wasn’t even sure what “fine” was anymore. Everything felt hopeless.

Every time I closed my eyes, all the horrific things I’d witnessed flashed like a slideshow. The demon who wore my brother’s face was holding my parents hostage, threatening their lives unless I surrendered myself to be his guinea pig in his quest to carry on Gianna’s hybridization of the species. And now an unplanned pregnancy I never wanted.

I wrapped my arms around Nick, squeezing tightly and seeking comfort in this confusing time. I tried to focus on him, on everything we’d overcome recently. I tried to focus on the warmth of his embrace and all the good I knew we could accomplish as the leaders of our pack.

Basically, I tried to focus on anything that might help slow my descent into madness.

Sniffling, I lifted my face from the front of his shirt, resting my chin on his shoulder and looking behind him at the wall as my fingers curled into his shirt and I held him close. I thought back to my earlier fear from when Miranda originally posed the possibility, and I whispered, “What if it’s not yours?”

His hand stopped moving through my hair, and his entire body froze. Based on this reaction, I assumed it was a possibility he hadn’t really considered, but I could tell he knew there was definitely a chance that David was the father. I clung tighter, afraid that if he pulled away, I might fall apart, and I couldn’t do this alone.

Much to my surprise, he took a breath and then strengthened his hold on me. “That doesn’t matter,” he whispered.

Tears fell from my eyes unexpectedly when Nick kissed the top of my head, moving his hands up and down my back. “We should try to get some sleep.”

I pulled back, shocked that he could even think about sleep right now. “What about…?”

Nick’s hands cradled my face, thumbs stroking my cheekbones, and he shook his head. “It’s night, and we wouldn’t stand a chance. We should wait until morning when they’re restricted to the shadows. He’s not going to hurt them. We need to talk to the Pack and formulate a plan, and Vince is going to try and contact the Shaman again in the morning.”

“We can’t take the Pack with us,” I told him. “He told me to go alone. He’ll kill my parents before I even get through the front door…assuming there is a front door where he’s keeping them.”

“You’re insane if you think I’m letting you go alone,” Nick argued, eyes glowing brighter as the wolf awoke. “And I’m not saying we take the Pack, but they should be aware of our plans. They should know where we are in case something goes wrong.”

A fog filled my head, and exhaustion zapped me of any energy I thought I had. Nick took notice and offered to make up our makeshift bed and start a fire while I washed up. After washing my face, I returned to the living room to find the fire burning as Nick straightened out the blankets in front of it. He’d found the time to change into a pair of flannel pants that hung low on his hips, and I took a moment to drink in the sight of him. I admired the way the flames cast an orange glow on his skin that danced and flickered across his strong build.

Upon seeing me in the entrance, Nick folded a corner of the blankets back as an invitation, and I accepted, tossing my dirty jeans onto the nearby armchair with the intention of washing them in the morning. I lay on the floor and waited for Nick to join me. He did so after placing another log on the flames, turning his body to face mine, the fire at his back. We lay on our sides, looking into each other’s eyes for a few minutes before he finally spoke.

“I won’t ask you to find out the paternity.” He paused, dropping his eyes and reaching out to run his hand over my arm. “As I said earlier, it doesn’t matter to me.”

I let a small smile of appreciation form on my lips. “How very progressive of you.” Nick slipped his hand beneath the duvet, sliding it down over my hip and then nervously brushing the slight swell of my lower abdomen. The gesture was sweet, but I could sense he wasn’t sure of his boundaries, so I placed my hand over his and pressed it flat against my stomach. “I had no idea my birth control would fail.”

“I should have mentioned it,” Nick offered. “I just figured the odds were so low once you became a wolf that you would have time to figure that all out. And then David died, and I never expected the two of us to…I mean, I
hoped
we would, but I hadn’t expected it so soon.”

Nick lifted his hand back to my hip and smiled. I could see the apprehension in his eyes, but I also saw a glint of excitement.

“What happens now?” I asked. “What about medical help? Checkups? The birth? With Miranda gone…”

“Layla knows quite a bit,” Nick explained. “She wasn’t a nurse, but she’s a full-blood, so she’s familiar with how our anatomy works. She should be able to figure out how far along you are and determine a due date.” He paused for a moment. “You should be aware that your pregnancy won’t last as long as a human’s. Your lupine DNA will cut it down to about six months. You’ll be able to shift without fear of harming the baby—which you should know since you’ve been doing so lately without knowing your results.”

“Will the baby…? What I mean is, if David were the father, would the baby be human, or would my altered genetics dominate?”

“There will be about a fifty-fifty chance,” he answered without faltering. “However, if I were the father…”

“Born a wolf.”

Nick nodded. “But he—”

“Or she.”

Smirking, Nick arched an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. “Or she,” he amended, “wouldn’t experience their first shift until somewhere around adolescence. Until that time, they’d learn our history as part of a regular school curriculum.”

“Even if they’re human? Wouldn’t that go against Pack Law? Humans can’t know about us.”

Smirking, Nick half-shrugged. “Something tells me your kid won’t sell you out.”

“Until he’s an unruly teenager who I’ve pissed off by setting boundaries.”