Christmas Moon (4 page)

Hunter gave a quiet growl. One that rumbled
through his chest and it left his eyes wolf-bright in the dimness
of her house.

Bree laid a hand against his cheek. “My dog
had been trying to warn me for a few seconds before that, but it’s
been a long time since I let the ridgeback in me out to romp.”

She gave him a little half-smile, trying to
soothe the wild beast that seemed to pace in his eyes. His wolf
wanting out. He’d been out hunting tonight, as a wolf, and she
couldn’t remember the last time she’d shifted and let her dog-half
have a good run. The Rhodesian ridgeback that had once been such an
integral part of her—the reason she’d become a Hound in the first
place, just like her mother—was now nothing but a faded memory.

One, she realized as she looked Hunter’s wolf
in the eye, that she missed dearly.

Tomorrow
, she promised herself.

She was tired of living a shadow of a life.
Tired of paying for her dead husband’s sins, tired of blaming
herself because she hadn’t seen the monster growing inside him when
no one else had either.

Hunter ran a thumb over her lips. “I’m
sorry.”

She smiled against his touch. “For what?
Caring?”

“How long?” he asked, his voice whisper-soft.
“How long since you’ve shifted?”

“Before Caesar—” The words died in her
throat. She barely knew the man she sat next to and
that
story wasn’t one she was ready to share.

But Hunter seemed to know. He nodded.
“Because you blame yourself?”

She started to say something snarky, or brush
it off, but every time she opened her mouth the words just wouldn’t
come. Finally, Bree just tilted her head in a slight nod. Looking
Hunter in the eye, it was hard to forget they’d just met. Something
in his gaze told her he understood.

“Yeah. Why didn’t I see what he’d become?
After Ari—” Her voice shattered on her daughter’s name and she
pulled away, rising to a stand, putting distance between Hunter and
herself. But he followed her and grabbed her hand, holding her to
him, and that strength was enough to let her continue on. “After
Arianna’s death, I just assumed he was grieving. That we were both
withdrawn, that there was nothing wrong.”

“How old was she? Your daughter?”

“Five. She was just a baby still. She was
killed by a rogue lion-shifter.”

“I’m sorry.” Hunter squeezed her hand in
his.

“After that, both Caesar and I needed time to
heal. We both buried ourselves in the job. I ran the pack from the
office; he was the acting alpha in the field. We were one of the
best Enforcement packs out there.” She tilted her head back,
blinking back tears. “I just wish I’d seen the signs.”

Hunter stepped into her, the heat from his
body wrapping around hers. He let go of her hands to cup the side
of her face and tilt her head until she was looking straight at
him, tears in her eyes and all. “There might not have been any. But
even if there were, Breanne, you were grieving for your daughter.
No one blames you.”

“No? Everyone blames me. The friends and
families of his victims. Enforcement. I was his superior. I was
supposed to see shit like that.”

“He attacked his partner didn’t he? And she
was as close to him as anyone else in the field with him. She
didn’t see the signs either.”

Lennox
. Bree would never stop
regretting, but Lennox at least had managed to save herself.

She didn’t even know she was crying until
Hunter swiped a tear from her cheek. “Is that why you haven’t
called Enforcement? You’re worried about what they think of you?
Between the vandalism and the phone calls, anyone else would have.
I would have.”

“I know what they think of me.” She was the
widow of a rogue-Hound, too blind to see one of their own go bad
before it was flashed across the news. In Enforcement, that was the
unthinkable. The ultimate betrayal. “I just want to disappear.”

At least, that’s what she had wanted when
she’d first come to White Pine. Now, standing in Hunter’s arms, she
wasn’t so sure that’s what she really wanted anymore.

He leaned in and grazed a kiss against her
lips. “I don’t want you to disappear.”

“It’s not up to you.” But she leaned in and
kissed him, letting her actions say what she couldn’t bring herself
to voice. That maybe, just maybe, she didn’t want to disappear
either. “I think my visitor is done for the night and I’m ready to
get some sleep. You should—”

“Stay.” One corner of his mouth hitched up.
“I’ll sleep on the couch. But ex-Hound with a gun or not, I’m
staying. I’m not leaving you here alone tonight.”

Bree nodded. She didn’t want to argue.
Something about Hunter made her feel safe, made her want more out
of life than solitary confinement. “You don’t have to stay on the
couch.”

He winked. “Yeah I do. Now go get some sleep.
I think the throw pillows and afghan out here are enough for
me.”

“Hunter...”

“Night, Bree.”

He nudged her out of the living room and
turned away, but not before she saw the flash of longing in his
eyes. He wanted more, and they were both adults here...

But he didn’t move toward the couch. Instead
he stalked toward the large bay window in her living room and stood
there staring out into the darkness. Watching. Her protector.

Bree smiled and strode back into the room to
grab her gun. Hunter turned, a slight frown creasing his face until
he saw her pick up her weapon. “I’m not a complete damsel in
distress. Get some sleep, wolf. I think we can have each other’s
backs tonight.”

Gun in hand, she headed toward her bedroom,
but as she reached the threshold she heard Hunter’s soft chuckle in
the darkness, then the creak of the couch as he settled in for the
night. She smiled.

Chapter Five

The shrill blare of the phone jarred him out
of sleep. Again. Hunter groaned and laid his arm across his eyes,
as if that could blot out the sound. It rang again and this time he
rolled off the couch with a snarl and stalked across the living
room. Snatching the phone off the side table he clicked it on.

Quiet breathing greeted his ears.

“Stop calling,” Hunter snapped out, his spine
rigid. He’d barely gotten any sleep at all with this bastard
calling constantly all night. If Breanne dealt with this every
night...

It was a wonder she didn’t have dark circles
under her eyes.

The breathing hitched on the phone, probably
surprise, but Hunter didn’t stop there. “And if I catch you on pack
lands again you’ll be a dead wolf before Enforcement ever knows we
had a rogue problem.”

The phone clicked off and Hunter tossed it
back to the table, fully ready to collapse on the couch, when he
caught sight of Bree standing in the walkway. The same baggy pants
and loose, white tee, her hair rumpled with sleep. She
looked...soft. Breathtaking.

And he stood there frozen, drooling like a
thirteen-year-old boy after his first crush.

She gave him a gentle smile as she leaned
against the wall. She crossed her arms over her chest. He couldn’t
help but wonder if she knew that pushed her breasts up, making them
look plump, ripe for the taking.

“You don’t look like you slept at all,” she
said, voice soft.

“I didn’t.” He jerked his hand toward the
phone and then glanced at her. “You look like you slept fine.”

“That’s why I leave the phone out here. I
don’t have to hear it. Should have thought about that last night,
I’d have turned it off...” She let the words trail away and Hunter
stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Does he call like this every night?”

Bree shrugged. “Not really sure. Like I said,
after the first few, I left it out here. Those first few nights it
varied. One call, then six, then two. Figured it was a bunch of
kids thinking they could spook an old lady.”

She wasn’t old, and by the way her lips
twitched when she said it, he knew she was teasing. Making light of
a situation that should never have existed. She’d thought it was a
bunch of teens from his pack trying to torment an ex-Hound out of
pack land. She’d given them slack where Hunter never would
have.

But still, if the bastard calling was the
same one that had lurked outside her house last night, it wasn’t a
kid prank calling. No, he was old enough to know better and he’d
just taken the harassment to a whole new level. Now, he was
dangerous. Very dangerous.

“You should call Enforcement.”

Bree arched an eyebrow. “Would you like some
tea?”

Stubborn. But fine. He’d let her believe he
was letting it go. The moment he left here, he’d call in someone to
watch her house and then
he’d
drive his ass down to the
local Shifter Town Enforcement office and report the
rogue-slash-stalker himself. Hunter put on a fake smile. “I’d love
some.”

“And yet I get the feeling you’d rather
strangle me.” She gestured for him to follow as she strode for the
kitchen.

As stubborn as she was, strangling was still
the last thing on his mind. Hunter watched her hips sway as she
moved around her kitchen. He leaned back against the counters, his
elbows braced on the faux-granite behind him. Still, probably best
to change the subject. “It’s almost Christmas and you don’t have a
single decoration. Why?”

Not a tree, a light, a Christmas card....

Pain fluttered across her gaze and she looked
away, instantly making him regret the question. “Arianna,” he said
softly, knowing the moment her daughter’s name left his lips that
he was right.

Holidays, birthdays, they had to be the
hardest for her. So full of memories of a child she no longer had.
A family she no longer had.

A ghost of a smile touched her lips and when
Bree turned back to him he could see the tears misted in her eyes.
“Yes. This time of year only makes me miss them...her...more.”

“You’re allowed to miss him.”

Her smile took a wry twist as she cocked her
head at him. “Well that’s good, to know what I’m
allowed
to
feel.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Bree softened. “I know. But you’re right, I
try and talk myself out of missing Caesar, but the man I married,
loved, had a beautiful daughter with—he wasn’t the same man that
did those horrible things.”

“And that’s the man you miss. I get that.”
Hunter glanced around her kitchen. “You don’t even have pictures
up. Does not having any reminders at all help?”

“Sometimes. Most times I don’t think anything
helps. Isn’t your pack missing you, yet?”

He winced. “Sorry. Being too nosy?”

“A little.”

Hunter crossed the distance between them and
Bree didn’t back down. She’d opened to him, relaxed. The calm tilt
of her head, the playful watch of her eyes, it all told him how
comfortable she was becoming with his presence. A far cry from the
woman who’d seemed so at a loss for kindness when he’d offered to
clean her garage for her.

He reached out and swept aside a lock
ruby-red hair. “You can’t blame me for being curious.”

“Oh I could.” There was an edge in her voice
that told him far more than the words she said. Most likely people
in the past had been curious for all the wrong reasons.

But they weren’t Hunter.

“I don’t care about your past husband,
Breanne. I’m interested in
you
. The lone ex-Hound who placed
herself smack-dab in the middle of wolf territory.”

“In my defense, I was looking for a house
away from—” The words died and she lifted her shoulders in a shrug.
“Everything. White Pine seemed like a such a small, quiet
place.”

“A place to disappear,” he said, echoing her
words from yesterday.

Bree nodded. “Yes.”

Hunter stepped closer, feeling the warmth
from her body. When she took a deep breath her breasts brushed his
chest. All he had to do was tilt his head, lean in a little, and he
could take her lips in another kiss. “Are you going to leave now
that somebody’s found you?”

Her lips twitched. “No. I don’t scare that
easily.” Bree poked him in the chest. “Besides, I’m armed.”

“Not right now, you’re not.” Hunter slid his
arm around her waist and tugged her until the last few inches
between them were gone. Her body flush against his. A shiver danced
through her and he wanted to swoop down and steal her lips in a
kiss more than he’d wanted anything.

“You hardly scare me,” she whispered, a smile
trailing across her lips. She almost seemed surprised by that
little revelation and it made him grin.

Hunter leaned down, breathing in the soft
cinnamon scent that was Bree. His lips hovered over hers, so close,
and then he heard the familiar chime of his phone. His pocket
buzzed. Bree arched her eyebrows, mirth written all over her
face.

“Saved by the phone,” he muttered and let her
go, ignoring the soft chuckle she gave as he dug his phone out of
his pocket. It was a pack ring tone. “This better be good.”

Bree patted his chest and headed for the
stove. As he watched her sashay across the kitchen he didn’t think
there was any reason good enough for interrupting this.

“Boss. Think we got trouble out here.” His
second in command said over the phone.

Damn
. “What kind of trouble?”

“The kind with Hounds.”

He saw Bree’s head tilt. Her added
canine-senses would easily let her overhear the conversation, and
he saw the slight perk in her interest before she quickly dashed it
and carried on about her business. Hunter let out a sigh. Right
now, the pack needed him more than Bree did.

“On my way.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “You
can take my car.”

Hunter shook his head. “I’ll run.”

He closed the distance between them in three
quick strides. “Watch yourself.”

“I was saving myself long before nosy wolves
came around.” She tossed him a teasing smile. “Watch yourself,
Hunter. Who knows, maybe having a wolf nosing around might not be
so bad.”