Riley's Secret (A Moon's Glow Novel # 1) (32 page)

I peeked around and saw the wolf stand in front of
Rowan. He gave a loud growl, baring his teeth. Then he lunged at him, sending
Rowan running out the door with Joseph chasing behind him.

I fumbled in my pocket for my phone and dialed. Lauren
was huddled behind me. I could feel her body trembling.

“I just got the pizzas—” Nate said from the other end.

I interrupted him. “Rowan’s here. Joseph went after
him.”

“What?”

I peeked around the sofa at the broken window. There
was a large wolf-shaped hole in the center with pieces of glass littering the
floor and furniture. “And you’re going to need a new window.”

Sister Charlotte

“I’m so sorry, Nate. I don’t know how he got away. I
traced his scent all the way to the other side of town, but he went through the
bloody river and I couldn’t pick it up after that.” Joseph had apologized to
me, to Lauren and now it was Nate’s turn.

Nate hammered the last nail into the plywood that was
now covering the window and then turned around to face Joe. He held the hammer
loosely in his hand. “I told you it was fine. I lost his scent too. Stop
apologizing.”

“Yes, but you weren’t right behind him like I was. He
shouldn’t have been able to lose me.” He pounded the plywood with his fist in
frustration. A loud hollow
thud
rang out, making Lauren and me jump.

“So, how’s the pizza?” I asked her. The two werewolves
had spent most of the night fixing the window. They also argued about whose
fault it was that Rowan got to me and that he was able to get away. We had
cleaned up the glass before Nate returned, but he rushed right out again to
help Joseph, after Will arrived armed with the gun.

Will left shortly after the werewolves began arguing.
They hadn’t even touched their pizza.

“It’s good. I guess we get to eat the rest of it,
since no one else wants any.” She raised her voice, but the guys didn’t hear
her. Now they were trying to figure out Rowan’s next move.”

“Nate!” I called loudly, just as they were about to
begin another argument.

“Yeah?” he said, holding up the hammer he was now
pointing at Joe.

“Are you going to eat or not? The pizza’s getting
cold.”

“Oh, right. Come on, Joe, stop worrying. Both the
girls are fine. And they wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for you.” He tossed the
hammer into his tool box and sat down beside me.

They ate the rest of the pizza and Lauren and I
convinced them to play Scrabble telling them there was no way Rowan was going
to return tonight. Especially since Nate was back and it would be two against
one. For the rest of the night we played the game and I lost miserably.
Surprisingly, Lauren didn’t win either. Joe clobbered us with the highest score
I’d ever heard of.

Nate didn’t play the first game. He was on the phone
most of the time talking to Will. He was trying to convince him it was best if
Lauren stay here just in case Rowan came after her. Using the argument of two
werewolves as bodyguards Nate finally convinced him.

“Okay, so it’s not a good idea to play Scrabble
with…what? A hundred-and -twenty-year-old werewolf? He’s lived so long he knows
every word in the English language,” Lauren said, tossing a couple letters at
Joe. The letter A bounced off his forehead and dropped into his drink,
splashing soda onto the game. I laughed as I watched her wipe up her mess.

“And quite a few more, since I grew up in Ireland.” He
picked up the letter Z and whipped it at Lauren. It smacked her in the
shoulder, leaving a red mark on her skin.

“Hey,” she gasped, trying not to laugh. She grabbed
the rest of the letters and stuffed them inside the box to avoid any more
injuries. “Do you live there or here in the U.S.?” Lauren held the game out of
Joe’s reach.

He leaned back in his chair, staring at the box stuck
under her arm. “Here. I haven’t been home in a very long time. There’s nothing
for me there but bad memories.”

Lauren’s face clouded with concern and she forgot all
about the game. “Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t want to bore you.” He waved his hand in
the air.

“Is it too personal to ask how you became a werewolf?”
I asked.

He scowled. “It’s not too personal. I’m sure you’ve
heard of her before, since Nate and I have the same creator.”

Both of us gasped. “Charlotte Burns.” I heard someone
whisper the name and then realized it was me.

“Yes, that witch took my life from me. The name Joseph
Burns was moving up in my town. I was an up-and-coming journalist. I even saw
the queen once when she visited Dublin. I was about to get a promotion at the
newspaper when—”

I held my hand up to stop him. “Wait. Did you just say
your last name is Burns? As in Charlotte Burns?”

“Yep. The werewolf that changed me was my sister.”

Mine and Lauren’s mouth fell wide open in
surprise. We were speechless.

Joseph chuckled. “Shocked you, didn’t I?” He lifted
his knee up, resting his arm on it and sighed. “She disappeared for a few years
and when she came back she looked exactly the same. I didn’t really think much
of it since it was only a few years. My mother wasn’t happy to see her. They
never did get along, but since Charlotte appeared to be fine, my mother figured
she worried about her for no reason and that she was out having the time of her
life. They fought like the devil. And frankly I was tired of hearing it.”

His eyes turned yellow as he spoke, his hand that
rested on the table clenched into a fist. “One night she crept into my room and
told me she wanted to show me something. I told her to bugger off and tried to
go back to sleep. But she lifted me out of bed and carried me like a bloody
baby. She’s fairly small, with not much to her. There is no way she should have
been able to lift me. She put me down outside near the edge of the forest. I
was speechless. I just stared at her, at a loss for words. She smiled and asked
if I wanted to get away from Mother. She said I couldn’t enjoy living with the
old bag since all she did was yell. I told her I was fine living with Mother.
She was the one who brought out the anger in her.”

His expression changed, eyes narrowing and his jaw
tightening. “She told me she wanted me to come with her, said that we could
travel the world and do anything we wanted. I told her no. I had a good job and
a woman that I loved that I was planning on marrying one day. My rejection set
her off. Her eyes changed color as she crouched down and then she pounced on
me. When she landed she was a wolf. She bit me in the arm. I could tell it was
a struggle to leave it at that.”

Lauren gasped and reached out to place her hand on his
arm.

Joe relaxed a little with her touch and continued with
his story. “She took off into the forest and I never saw her until the next
full moon when she explained what I now was. She wanted me to go with her. She
was lonely and she missed her brother. I did at first, until I saw how she
treated humans, as nothing more than her next meal. When I was with her she
told me everything there was to know about being a werewolf. I left her after I
found an abandoned cottage. I learned to control the urges on my own and I was
a lot happier without her.”

“Is that when you met Nate?” I asked, curious about
their friendship, considering he was related to someone Nate hated so much.

“When I ran into her years later she told me about
Nate. I found him in America. I felt remorse about what she had done to him and
was surprised that he had the courage to turn her down. I found him on death’s
door after a visit from our friend Rowan. I patched him up and we became
friends, have been ever since.” We were silent for a few minutes, each of us
digesting what he had told us.

Nate finally put the phone down after an urgent call
from his nephew Richard and returned to the table. “What did I miss?”

“Joseph was just telling us about when Charlotte
turned him and how you met,” I said to Nate and then turned back to the other
werewolf. “But Joseph, I would like to hear about some of that trouble you
spoke of this morning.”

“You don’t need to hear that,” Nate interrupted Joe,
who had opened his mouth to speak.

“Oh, come on, one story,” I pleaded with Joseph, who
was suddenly quiet. He smiled and then began to tell us about a time he tried
to set Nate up with a girl.

After he finished and the laughter subsided, Nate felt
he had to get even and tell us a few tales about Joseph’s women. Lauren and I
mainly listened and asked questions. It was fascinating, hearing about the
world before there was electricity and cars and everything that we take for
granted. It sounded so much more simple back then. I suddenly wished I were
born in another time. We stayed up late. Nate bugged us until we gave in and
played another game of Scrabble. Lauren no longer thought it was that much fun
with the two of them playing.

Joseph kept his word and stayed a fair distance from
Lauren, although I did notice him staring at her when she wasn’t looking. I’d
kick him under the table and he’d snap out of it. In only one day I became very
attached to him. I felt like he was the brother I had always wanted.

We eventually went to bed. Joe convinced Lauren to
sleep in the spare room and he slept on the couch.

I came out of the bathroom after changing into my
nightshirt. “So do you think it was a mistake for me to ask Lauren over?” I
asked Nate, who was sitting in the bed with the blanket up to his bare chest.

“No, I wanted him to get to know her before he made
his decision. So this was a good way. Did you notice how hard it was for him to
follow your rules?”

I laughed. “Yes and they were basic rules. When he
first saw her I know he freaked her out by standing right in her face and
staring at her. I just wanted him to give her some space. Was it hard for
you
not to be near
me
?”

His smile disappeared. “You have no idea.
When you dated Aaron Wilder and Billy Collins, I didn’t realize I had so much
restraint. Lauren told me my eyes changed quite a bit during that time. I’m
just glad you didn’t date either of them for long.”

Picking up my brush and making my way to the bed, I
sat down and began brushing out the ponytail I had worn all day. “I only did it
to make you jealous. After you came up to me that day I kept expecting you to
do it again and maybe talk to me. And when you didn’t, I went up to you.
Remember? You turned the other way every time. I eventually gave up, but I was
never interested in anyone else. I suppose it wasn’t fair of me to use them.”
Setting the brush down onto the nightstand, I climbed under the covers.

Nate clicked out the light and turned to face me. I
was so content here, as if we had been living together for years. It just felt
right. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to leave him and go back home
when this was over. Just the thought of it brought a tear to my eye.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, touching the tear and wiping
it from my cheek. I wasn’t sure how he saw that I was crying in the dark. Sure,
the moonlight was coming in through the windows, but it was only one tear.

“Nothing,” I said softly, suddenly embarrassed. He
glared at me, telling me without speaking that he didn’t believe me. “I’m just
thinking about how hard it’s going to be to leave you.”

His eyes widened in panic. “You’re leaving me?”

“I mean when I go back home.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh. I don’t want to
think about that. It just feels right having you here. It’s going to be hard to
let you go.” I wanted to say “then don’t” but I couldn’t. It had to come from
him.

He leaned in and touched his lips to mine, softly at
first but gradually the kiss deepened. He thrust his fingers into my hair and
used them to pull me closer. He lifted me up above him and leaned up to kiss my
neck and collarbone. The feel of his soft lips on my skin caused a stirring
inside me. I pushed him onto his back and wrapped my arms around him, lifting
my leg up on his hip, until every inch of our bodies were touching. I kissed
him with a hunger that exploded inside me. He answered my need with a matching
hunger and ran his hands down my sides and then gently along my back.

“We should stop,” I whispered, only because I wanted
to continue.

“You’re right,” he said softly, falling back onto his
pillow. “It’s hard to keep my hands off of you. I love you so much.” His voice
was a soft whisper as he gently rubbed a finger down my cheek and then my chin,
until it reached my neck. His touch was so light it created a tingle along my
skin. “I never imagined I could be this happy. I knew I would love you, but in
a million years I couldn’t have guessed you’d love me back knowing what I was.”

It was ridiculous how low his opinion of himself was.
“Nate, I think I loved you that first day I saw you in the cafeteria. Nothing
would have changed how I felt about you. At first I thought you were a killer,
but that was because you lied to me. As long as we’re honest with each other
nothing will keep us apart. Now that you’ve found me, I’m yours forever.”

He stared intensely into my eyes. There was love and
sadness in his gaze. “Well, not forever, but long enough.” He bent down and
kissed my nose. “It’s late, we should get some sleep. I want to be alert. I
won’t risk another attack.”

I turned on my side and he spooned me from behind. I
felt his fingers twisting my hair. “Fiery sun,” he said below a whisper.

“What did you say?”

“Your hair. It’s as yellow as the sun, but when you
get close you see a faint red tinge. Just like the sun, it looks yellow from a
distance, but up close it’s a ball of fire. When you’re not around I look up
into the sky on a sunny day and think of you.” His voice was slightly louder,
but I still had to strain to hear him. I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I
stayed silent, taking his arm and wrapping my arms tightly around it. “Good
night, Megan.”