Accepting the Moon: Prequel

by K. S. Haigwood

  I couldn‘t imagine what a man like him would do for a living, and then it occurred to me that he might actually be a model. I hadn‘t ever seen him before, but that wasn‘t saying much; I rarely had time to look at magazines or keep up with Runway. I gasped and then giggled as the thought of him being a porn star came to mind. I shook my head at the ridiculous thought; he seemed to have more respect for that beautiful body of his than to do something like that. I honestly couldn‘t imagine him working for anyone but himself. The whole taking orders from anyone didn‘t suit him. What if he was a hit man? I wondered. But what would a hit man know about werewolves? And Jaxon was so strong and fast, but nobody would be able to tell it by simply looking at him. Were they even human?

  Besides the strength and speed, Jaxon looked like a fairly normal guy, but Phoenix… A sigh escaped my lips as I remembered the image of him standing in front of me with those ice cold eyes. Phoenix was anything but normal, I concluded.

  I quickly towel-dried my hair, then unzipped the duffle bag Lea had packed for me. My jaw dropped. No! I gasped in horror. This had to be a mistake. I reached in and pulled out the black leather pants, holding them at arm‘s length so I could get a good mental picture of what a disaster the rest of my night was going to be. I groaned and tossed them on the vanity, dreading what shirt Lea thought would complete the outfit. After reaching in, I pulled out a new matching set of lacy underwear in nude, a white tank top, socks, a black fitted leather jacket and a pair of black boots with a low heel—everything was exactly my size. Lea had looked smaller than me, so I didn‘t have a clue whose clothes I was borrowing. She had even brought a small bag of hygiene items, including: a toothbrush, brush, face moisturizer and deodorant. I made a mental note to thank her later for those items.

  After dressing and cleaning up after myself, I looked in the mirror and huffed. “That‘s enough stalling, Biker Chick. You aren‘t going to find the answers to your problems in the john.”

  I turned the handle and opened the bathroom door to hear Phoenix shouting, but the instant I walked into the room, all fell silent.

  My eyes met Jaxon‘s. He looked nervous as he glanced back to Phoenix.

  “I‘m begging you…” Jaxon said, and let the rest of his sentence go unsaid.

  “Get out,” Phoenix said, his tone gruff.

  Jaxon‘s sad eyes shifted back to me for only a moment, before he turned and walked from the room, slamming the door in his wake.

  Phoenix stood with his back to me, anger radiating from his rigid posture.

  “What was that all about?” I said quietly.

  Instead of answering me, he crossed the room and filled a crystal glass with a dark liquid.

  I lay the bag with my soiled clothing in it on the floor, not wanting to get any mud from last night‘s adventure on the furniture.

  “You know, usually Twenty Questions is played with one person asking the questions and the other person answering them. I overheard you talking with Jaxon earlier about how I would go through my first change tonight, so I‘m guessing we don‘t have a lot of time to strategize a plan to keep that from happening.”

  Phoenix raised the glass to his lips and took a sip, but before he set it back down he opened his mouth to speak and then turned those bright, light blue eyes on me. No words came out. He just looked at me, with absolutely no expression on that beautiful face to let me know what was going through that mysterious mind of his.

  “There is no way to keep it from happening,” he finally said, and then downed the remains of what was in the glass in one huge gulp. “There is no reversing lycanthropy,” he finished, and placed the glass back on the bar.

  I had figured as much, which was why I probably hadn‘t freaked out yet. Either that or I was still in shock. Being this calm about everything I‘d been through in the last twelve hours or so was beginning to scare me a little.

  I didn‘t flinch away as he continued to stare, not even when he let his eyes roam down, then back up my body for the second time. I told myself he was just making sure Lea had followed through on his orders and brought me everything I needed, and that it had nothing to do with how silly I looked in tight leather pants. I had caught Jaxon looking at me in a similar way, but him staring at me didn‘t make all the heat in my body rush to my face the way that Phoenix‘s eyes on me did.

  Answers, Mena. You need answers. “What about you? What are you?”

  Phoenix smiled then, and I immediately locked my knees to keep them from buckling under my weight.

  “I‘m your enemy, Mena.”

  My voice was shaky as he slowly walked toward me. Actually, stalked would be a more appropriate way of explaining how he closed the distance between us. “Y—you don‘t have to be my enemy. I—I am pretty easy to get along with.”

  Running from him had already been proven to be a mistake, so I remained where I stood.

  He shook his head slowly. “That‘s not the way it is between your kind and mine,” he said, his voice floating through those sultry lips in a seductive whisper.

  I swallowed as he made his way around behind me, but I could feel him, and he was so close. “Why?” I said, my voice cracking under the intensity of his presence.

  His breath tickled my neck as the words left his mouth. “Because I am a vampire.”

  Faster than I had ever moved before, I turned in a flash and fell into a fighting stance, a low growl erupting from my chest as our eyes locked together.

  “See,” he said calmly, as if he had expected what I would do before it even happened. “Your instincts are taking over. You were made to hate me, just as I was made to hate you.”

  I didn‘t hate him. My body and mind were going through changes I didn‘t understand, but I knew I didn‘t hate him.

  Phoenix still hadn‘t moved, so I relaxed a little.

  His eyebrows raised in interest. “You do not wish to fight me anymore?” he said, his tone implying his surprise.

  “I never wanted to fight you. I was simply going to defend myself if you decided to attack me. And—and I don‘t hate you. That‘s just absurd. Whatever I‘ve become won‘t change who I am. I don‘t go around hating people just because I can, so until you give me a better reason other than that you are a vampire,” I shrugged, “I guess we can get matching BFF bracelets.”

  He blinked at me a few times, and I grinned, extremely pleased with myself for throwing a kink in his plan to intimidate me.

  “BFF?” he said, and one of his eyebrows popped up.

  My smile grew. “You know, best friends forever?”

  He rubbed his hands over his face, but snickered lightly as he did so. “You want to be my friend, do you? That‘s definitely a first.”

  I shrugged. “Well, I don‘t want to be enemies.”

  A sudden heat flashed in his eyes as a low growl vibrated from his chest, and I realized he had taken my statement to mean I wanted to be his lover. I blushed again. I hadn‘t really meant it to come out like it did.

  Phoenix startled me when he started toward the door. “Come with me,” he ordered.

  “What? Why? Where are we going?” I was almost jogging to keep up with his long, quick strides.

  “You have to leave.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Stop asking questions,” he said shortly.

  “But I need to know what to do!”

  “Stop talking, woman,” he growled.

  “Won‘t they look for me—and try to kill me? What does Jaxon think I should—”

  Phoenix stopped suddenly and threw me against a wall, his hard body pinning mine to the cool stone. One of his hands gripped my wrist and trapped it above my head as the fingers of his other hand shot into my hair and grabbed the back of my head before it could slam against the rock.

  It all happened so fast. His breathing was labored, as was mine, but I didn‘t feel threatened. The fight was gone out of him and the anger had quickly been replaced with a hunger that was foreign to me. I couldn‘t tell if it was sex
or my blood that he wanted.

  He leaned closer, breathing in the scent of his soap on my skin.

  “You… have… to leave here.”

  I could feel his warm breath on my face as he moved his head back to look down at me, and I could see in his eyes that he wanted to close the gap between our lips as much as I wanted him to.

  “Why?” I whispered again.

  “Because, if you stay, I will make you mine. You will belong to me. I will do as Jaxon suggests and sire you, making me ruler over the werewolves as well as the vampires. You and I would be bonded together for an eternity, Mena, but I share my throne with no one.” His gaze fell from my eyes to my lips. “You are dangerous to me,” he said softly, “because for you, I almost would.”

  He released me then turned and walked into a room full of weapons.

  I stumbled a little as the weight of him left my body.

  Well, that answered my unspoken question of whether he was married or not.

  Chapter 11

  Phoenix

  As Phoenix stormed away from Mena, he found the simple task of putting one foot in front of the other the greatest challenge he had ever encountered.

  She was just a woman, a woman that should, by everything he had ever believed, be his enemy, so why did he want to, all of a sudden, give it all up for—for what? It wasn‘t like they could have some sort of relationship. Her pack—if they didn‘t kill her—wouldn‘t allow that to happen, and Phoenix refused to think what his clan would say or do.

  It was foolish of him to even contemplate what could happen, because it never would. It didn‘t mean he didn‘t want it to, though, because he did; with every ounce of his damned soul, he wanted to rush back to where he had left her and make her his.

  Forcing himself into focus, Phoenix grabbed at silver throwing blades and daggers on the wall in front of him, placing them on the stainless table in the center of the room, before going to the other side to retrieve guns and ammo.

  He knew the instant Mena looked at him; he could feel her green eyes on him. She was curious, he knew, but she didn‘t seem afraid. She should be. He should have been stronger and made her fear him. He had been doing a damn good job of intimidating her until he‘d seen her in leather, then he had all but fallen at her feet like a love-struck fool.

  Lea would pay greatly for doing that to him.

  “Are we going to war?” Mena asked quietly. “Or are you planning to use those on me?”

  Holsters. Holsters.

  Phoenix walked to a cabinet and opened it to holsters, sheaths and a ton of other miscellaneous items needed to prepare one for battle.

  “Phoenix?” she whispered, stopping him in his tracks.

  His eyes slammed shut and in he breathed the scent of her as she slowly entered the room. Clearing his throat and scrambling in his mind to lock up his sanity before she had complete and utter control over him, he opened his eyes, cool and collected once again, and glared at her under dark lashes. “You‘re going to need protection from your own kind until they accept you as their pack leader. I have a feeling none of them are going to like having a woman as their Alpha.”

  “And you‘re just going to put all that stuff on me and throw me to the wolves, so to speak?”

  His lips thinned as he pursed them together, and he nodded once. “Yes. That about sums it up,” he said, and had to turn back to the cabinet to keep from seeing the sadness in her eyes.

  She already knew she was a dead dog. Why sugarcoat it for her?

  “Do you want this war to end, between werewolves and vampires?”

  Phoenix watched his knuckles turn white as he squeezed the leather holster in his fist. “It‘s not that easy—”

  “I didn‘t say it would be easy, but I do believe it‘s possible.”

  He turned then to look at her. How had she become so strong in so little time? He remembered when he had become master of his vampire clan. He‘d been terrified. You didn‘t have anyone to look up to when you were at the top. Nothing to gain and everything to lose. He knew how she felt. Alone. He had felt alone. He still felt that way, but now there was Mena, perhaps offering him another option.

  “You want me to make you hybrid?”

  She shook her head. “No. I don‘t want to belong to anyone.”

  “What do you suggest we do?”

  She smiled. “We try.”

  Mena

  The expression etched on his face was comical to me. Had I suggested we do something that absurd? I didn‘t think so.

  I watched him, waiting patiently for him to come to a conclusion. Would he think that working together to end something so horrible was a bad thing? I knew I couldn‘t do it alone. I wasn‘t even sure I could survive against my own people, much less end a war that had been going on for God only knew how long.

  We were both leaders and it was up to us what happened, right? How was it that he couldn‘t comprehend how simple it should be to stop all this crap? Sure, we would have to convince a lot of our own that this was the right thing to do, but, honestly, what were we even fighting for? More gain? More power? Bragging rights? I just didn‘t see it. Maybe it was just me.

  “Let me get this straight: you want us to be friends and work together to end a war that has lasted over a thousand years? That is what you‘re saying, right?”

  I shrugged. “Why not?”

  His eyebrows raised a fraction and were hidden behind the loose curls hanging almost to his eyes. “I think it‘s a death sentence for both of us.”

  “So, you would rather be my enemy?”

  He let his eyes slowly sweep down and then back up my body again. After a moment, he shook his head. “No—no, I don‘t want to be your enemy.”

  My heart swelled. Maybe this could work, that was if I could survive being slaughtered by my own pack tonight. I wasn‘t looking forward to meeting them, but the inevitable was going to happen when the moon rose high in the sky. I couldn‘t stay here with Phoenix; I had no idea what I would be capable of after I turned into a werewolf. He had been right: our kind were made to be enemies and hate each other, fight to the death. My goal was to change that.

  “I was hoping you‘d say that.” I looked to the table and the weapons he had put there for me to use to protect myself against my own people. “Load me up. I have respect to earn tonight.”

  Chapter 12

  Phoenix

  Mena looked like a true, badass warrior after Phoenix put the last sheath in place on her right thigh.

  Stepping back a bit, his fingers came up to play along his chin in thought. There was something missing, he mused, and then took his cell from his pocket and texted Lea a message.

  “Well?”

  “Something‘s missing,” he said. “Lea is on her way.”

  Mena snickered. “I don‘t think anything else is going to fit on my body.”

  Phoenix‘s mouth turned up at one corner as he thought about how fun it would be to take everything back off and not stop at the clothes once he got to them.

  Mena looked to the door when Lea entered with a brush and ponytail holders, but Phoenix kept his eyes on her as his assistant went to work.

  He nodded once, silently dismissing Lea after she finished. She left quietly.

  “How do I look?”

  Sin. A good nightmare. Sexy as hell. The death of me. My ruin. He cleared his throat and walked to the cabinet to put the things he hadn‘t used away. “You look fine,” he mumbled.

  “I look like Lara Croft.”

  “Who is Lara—” Phoenix started, but turned around to find her right in front of him, and all of a sudden his vocals forgot how to work.

  “Am I ready?”

  “No. Not even close.” He walked around her and out of the room. She followed. He could feel her and sense the questions coming. “Lea, is the car ready?”

  “It is,” Lea said, and fell into step beside him.

  “The car?” Mena said.

  Lea handed Phoenix a strip of black fabric
without answering Mena.

  “And you know where to take her?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Take me where?”

  “Good. Give her an untraceable cell and put my number in her contacts in case she needs backup.”

  Lea nodded and handed the phone in her hand to Mena.

  “But where am I going?” Mena said as they arrived at a staircase, leading up to a single door.

  Phoenix reached back and took Mena‘s hand without giving her eye contact. “What‘s the time?”

  “6:10,” Lea replied. “The sun set twenty-three minutes ago.”

  Phoenix nodded and tried to ignore the tingling sensation he was getting from touching Mena‘s bare skin. “Good,” he said, and unlocked and then opened the door at the top of the stairs. He made brief eye contact with Lea after she issued from the basement after Mena.

  “I‘ll wait in the car,” Lea said, and then left them to be alone.

  “Phoenix—”

  “Shh…” he said, and turned to face her. Why had he thought the urge to kiss her would have simply just vanished in the minute and a half it took to get away from her in the weapon room? If anything, it had only grown stronger. Was he crazy to let her walk out of there without protection from his clan? The pack would kill her. He knew they would. If for some reason he was wrong about that, there was the other worry in the back of his mind: the men. There were so many for her to choose from. Which one would she choose to mate with? Which one would he have to kill? And why did he feel like he needed to stake his claim on her, mark his territory?

  Those green eyes looked up at him, frightened. She was so scared. He could hear the rapid beating of her heart and see it pulse in the light blue vein of her jugular.

  Phoenix fought the impulse to let his fangs fully extend as her scent wafted past his nose. He knew she had wanted him to kiss her earlier, almost as much as he had wanted to, but that would have only caused them bigger, more dangerous problems.