Hyena Moon (32 page)

Finn understood what Laila was trying to tell him, and it was what made him so uneasy to have Mebis on the council in the first place. As much as Mebis had put on the line for Kess in the battle with the hyenas--and the possible loss of the use of his hand was no small thing --he was still a Keeper first and foremost. If he got orders counter to the good of their new council, how were they to know?

But he didn't want to bring this up with Laila and certainly not right now. She had enough on her mind with her brother. As much as she might wish to deny it, Finn knew that she was worried about the prognosis for Mebis' hand. Finn had no idea what it would mean for a Keeper to be injured in that way; from what he'd seen at the lake, Mebis and Laila were deadly enough that the loss of a hand wouldn't matter, but that was his opinion. Laila was sworn to secrecy about most Keeper business, so Finn had no way of knowing what could be expected.

He wondered if Mebis' continued presence here and on their council was because of his hand. If it turned out he didn't regain full use of it, at least he still had a place and purpose with the Keepers. Part of Finn wanted to know more about them, but a wiser part thought he already knew too much about them. Although with dating Laila and working with Mebis, Finn had a feeling he would be learning a lot more, whether he wished to or not.

"Hello?" Laila's hand passed in front of his face and Finn realized he'd zoned out. "Anybody in there?"

"Hey, sorry," he said, shaking his head as if to clear away the haphazard thoughts that kept distracting him. Then he leaned forward, putting his head close to hers. "Look, it's great that you want to warn me and everything, but can we not talk about it right now? I've done nothing but talk and meet about this whole council thing the last few days and, frankly, you're here. And you're much more interesting than any council talk."

Laila's smile was lazy, like a beast that had just eaten its fill and was descending into a satisfied sleep. "Oh, that's very good. How long have you been holding on to that one?"

"Just came up with it." He leered. "Did it work?"

She leered back and Finn again had to marvel at his good fortune. "Let's get out of here and find out."

He paid the check and draped an arm around her shoulders as they left the restaurant. "One good thing that's come out of all this: I get to stay in Miami. Which means I'm closer to you." Three months ago, he'd never expected those words to come out of his mouth. It still shocked him that he could feel this way about a girl. "When do you leave?"

Laila looked up at him, a glint of mischief in her eye. "Too damn soon."

"Let's make the most of it."

She rose to meet his kiss and all thoughts of councils and weres and future problems left his head completely.

Chapter Forty-Five

Rafe felt the wind off of the ocean against his face and sighed in pleasure. He'd finally felt strong enough to leave the house. His arm was still in a cast and he walked with a limp because of the bite Teresa took out of his leg, but he didn't feel quite so much like warmed over vomit. And he was going a little stir crazy being cooped up in the house for days on end. He didn't remember when he was brought back here, being doped to the eyeballs with painkillers, but he'd been in bed for days now and was tired of it.

Lenore walked beside him, ready to steady him if he stumbled on the loose sand. The breeze off the water ruffled her hair. She'd offered to accompany him to the beach at night when he'd said he was bored with looking at the same four walls. Finn and Laila decided to come along too; the werejackal had mentioned that strange things happened on the beach at night and that it was a good idea for them to tag along. Finn and Laila had shared a look and laughed, leaving Rafe to chalk it up to a private joke only the two of them shared.

They had gone on ahead, both of them being in better shape than he was. Rafe and Lenore continued down the beach at his snail's pace, but she didn't seem to mind. He led their steps closer to the water, so that they walked along the edge of the surf.

Lenore tucked her dark blonde hair behind her ears, in an effort to keep it from blowing in her face. Rafe smiled to himself as he stared at her. She was so amazing to him; he wondered how he'd gotten so lucky to attract someone like her. There was a part of him that continued to wait for her to wake up and realize she could do much better than him. But so far, that part of him remained disappointed.

They had been walking without touching, a safe distance between them, and Rafe was tired of it. Gingerly, because he still hurt in places and because he was afraid she'd rebuff him, he raised his arm and put it across her shoulders. She smiled and leaned into him.

"Took you long enough," she muttered, matching her pace to his.

"Be nice, I'm injured." He grinned down at her. He was new to all of this affection. It was taking him a while to get up to speed with it, but Lenore was making it remarkably easy.

"Injured, Rafe. Not dead." She bit her lip after the words left her mouth, as if she realized how that sounded. "God, sometimes I wish I could just swallow my tongue..."

"Hey, it's okay." He stopped walking so he could face her. He put his hands on her arms, lightly holding her. "I'm okay. With all of it."

Her eyes locked on his. "Yeah?" She sounded surprised.

He nodded. "I'm getting there," he amended. He was beginning to feel things again, the numbness and shock over the deaths of his mother and sister wearing off. It wasn't great to feel what he was feeling, but at least it was something. He'd been afraid there'd been something wrong with him.

She ducked her head down, burrowing her face in his chest. He tucked her head beneath his chin and rubbed her back. "You're right," he whispered.

Lenore pulled away enough to look at his face. "About?"

"I'm not dead." He lowered his mouth to hers, brushing his lips against hers softly. It was a breath of a kiss, tentative. He began to pull away, but Lenore wrapped her arms around his neck--loosely, thankfully--and didn't let him go.

He drank her in, the scent of her, the way she tasted like bubbles, like her effervescent personality had infused her lips. He wasn't sure what to do with his hands, so he dropped them to her hips, resting them carefully there, ready to remove them if she pulled away. She didn't.

He opened his eyes, wanting to see the way she looked when he kissed her. He had to break the kiss in order to look at her, but it was worth it. Her cheeks held a delicate flush, her lips red. Her lashes fluttered against the thin, pale skin under her eyes. Slowly, she opened her eyes and focused on him.

"Thank goodness for that." Her voice was a bit breathless. "I was beginning to wonder."

He mock-glared at her. "I'm not going to make out with you in front of your father. I'm pretty sure he'd break me in half and have your mom bake me into a pie."

Lenore laughed, punching him lightly on his chest. "My dad is NOT that bad."

"You don't think so. And don't even get me started on your brother." He grinned to show her he was joking. Cormac had been remarkably well behaved toward him in the past few days. Rafe must have proven to Cormac that he was serious about Lenore; being mauled by a werehyena who also happened to be family tended to do that. If it hadn't been so painful, Rafe thought he should have tried it earlier.

She took a seat on the sand, pulling him down with her. "You'll notice they aren't here now."

"So?" He had to rearrange his position a few times to find something that didn't make him hurt.

Lenore rolled her eyes. "So less talking and more kissing would be the way to go, Rafe."

"Who's the man here anyway?" He tried to sound offended and failed. The smile probably didn't help.

She grinned. "I'm beginning to wonder," she repeated.

"Hey. I'm wounded." His smile turned sly. "If you wanted to take advantage of me, I'm in no condition to fight you off."

Lenore's answering smile was extraordinarily wicked for someone who smelled so innocent. "Oh really?" was her arch reply. At his nod, she climbed into his lap, still mindful of his injuries, which he appreciated.

"Really," he offered.
Wow, that was intelligent. Quite the ladykiller.
He was caught by her whiskey-brown gaze.

"We can't have that, now can we?" Her breath was hot against his ear and he shivered.

He turned his head and kissed her, all of his senses alive. He felt the grains of sand brushing his legs, the coolness of the water as it lapped at their feet every time the tide hit the beach, smelled the wildflower scent of Lenore mixed with the salt of the sea, but most especially he was aware of the warmth and heft of her body on his. She was light, so light he wondered if her bones were hollow, like a bird's.

She breathed into his mouth, a soft sigh and he felt her hands run down his chest, around his waist and come to rest on his lower back. She pulled his t-shirt up to press her hands against his skin. His good hand traced a path over supple curves and across taut muscles. He wished he wasn't hampered by the cast, especially when he tried to thread his fingers through her hair and nearly brained her with the damned thing.

"Sorry," he muttered against her lips. She broke away from him, laughing.

"We need to try this again when I'm not being held hostage and you're not torn up like a doggy chew toy." She moved off his lap, settling herself beside him again.

"Bad timing." He shook his head in regret. She was going back to North Carolina. He'd be staying here, living at Kess' house while he finished high school.

Lenore placed her head against his shoulder. "It sucks. I'm going to be leaving soon."

Rafe awkwardly put his arm with the cast on it around her shoulders and pulled her closer. He wasn't sure what to say to her. He didn't want her to go, but knew he didn't have a say in the matter. She had to go back to North Carolina with her parents and he had to stay here. He had a reason to stay now; one that he was actually looking forward to. Being the werehyena representative in Kess' new plan for running Miami was a big responsibility. But that didn't mean this had to be it for the two of them.

"You're here now. And so am I." He kissed her forehead lightly where her frown had wrinkled it. "I'll call. You'll text. I can come see you--if it's okay with your parents. It's not the end of anything."

She was still. He wondered what she was thinking in that pretty head of hers. She wasn't usually so quiet. "You okay?" He felt her nod. "Then what is it?" He had a horrible thought and his whole body stiffened. "Is it me?"

"Stop that." Her voice was gentle. "It's not you." Rafe felt the tension drain out of him. "I'm going to miss you." She spoke slowly, as if to someone dim. "And I want to remember every moment I have left." She looked up him, challenging. "That okay?"

He smiled, feeling his scars crinkling and not caring for once. "No arguments here." He tightened his arm around her as she snuggled up against him and looked out at the moon over the water. In his short life, he doubted he could remember a better night than this one.

Chapter Forty-Six

Water lapped softly against the wooden pylons, playing out its own easy rhythm. Kess sat on the dock, looking out over the water to where the sky met the sea. Things had settled down once more: Mebis was out of the hospital, although more surgery would be needed to help his hand, services had been said for her fallen clan members, the remaining hyenas were being dealt with, Rafe was healing up slowly but steadily, and Griff, Wyatt, and Burke had gone back to North Carolina. That still left her with a houseful of people since Laila was staying in town to visit with Finn and her brother, and Alaric and Emmeline were staying until Lenore was ready to leave.

It didn't bother her, all of the people, although it did make it hard to find some quiet. She'd taken to coming out here in order to get space to think. The natural cadences of tide and wind soothed her, helped steady her and let her think. She had a hard decision before her, and she wasn't sure if she could make what she knew to be the right choice.

She'd spoken to Finn—of all people—about what lay ahead of her. Miami was stable for now and she'd proven she could hold it, but it was going to be a dangerous time for the next few months. As much as she might want to, she couldn't just pick up and go back to the mountains. Now was the chance to do something different here, but to do so, she had to stay.

She and Finn and, surprisingly, Laila had stayed up late into the nights talking. Kess planned to open up Miami's borders, making the city free to all weres so long as they behaved by the were community's simple rules. A council was in place to deal with infractions, with representatives from each species sitting on it. If one were broke the rules, he or she would come before the council and the representative would pronounce punishment that would be meted out by the council itself. Right now Kess would speak for the cats, Finn for the wolves, Rafe for the hyenas. Laila had said that Mebis had been granted permanent assignment and could speak for both jackals and Keepers. If any bears showed up, however unlikely they thought it might be, the group could contact Wyatt and his mentor for their help. Kess had even gotten buy-in from the jaguars.

All of this was great in an abstract way. But it meant that she had to stay to oversee it; there was no leopard left alive that she trusted with this responsibility. Maybe she could train someone to take over for her eventually, but for right now, it had to be her. A lot was riding on this. The Keepers were still watching Miami. She had to stay.

She had to tell Cormac she wasn't going back with him.

He'd been busy with his family lately, as she had been with clan business. But she suspected he knew that something was up. He just hadn't asked her about it yet. He was waiting her out, like he usually did, counting on her to come to her own conclusions and then sharing them with him when she was ready.