Five Moons Rising

by Lise MacTague

  The points in her mind pulled at her and cried out to be touched, to be brought closer. She reached out to one and pulled it in. It felt warm in her hand. Warm contact at her back surprised her and she looked back. One of the wolven she had yet to get to know had sidled up behind her and was standing close enough that they barely touched. She was hyperaware of his proximity; electricity seemed to arc between them. Her wolf wanted to wind herself around him, to feel his wolf against her. Inside her. Cassidy stepped away from him. She couldn’t think with him that close.

  “What is it, Alpha?” His voice was low and gravelly. It sounded much older than he looked. Until she caught his eyes. This was someone who’d been around for a long time, no matter how few wrinkles he sported. When he caught her questioning look, he smiled, the skin around his mouth crinkling slightly, though it never touched his eyes.

  “Why are you so sad?” The whispered question left her before she could stop it. His scent was faded blue, like denim worn almost to the point of tearing. It was sadness so old it was a part of him, like the faded jeans that clung to every taut muscle on his legs.

  “Alpha?” Sadness was momentarily overwhelmed by shock. His eyes gleamed silver for a moment before settling back to faded gray.

  “Sorry.”

  “An Alpha must never apologize,” he said. “You’ve gained a position of strength. You can’t let it go now. Apologies make you seem weak.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” Cassidy cringed internally at repeating herself.

  “You’re a cubling, aren’t you?” He mirrored her nod. “That explains a lot. I’m Luther. You should stick by me. I can help you through this. Who turned you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Bastard should have stuck around long enough to get your feet under you.” He shook his head and Cassidy’s mind was filled by the face of a grizzled gray wolf. It competed with his face. The dual image was dizzying and she blinked a couple of times to clear it.

  “It wasn’t like that.” Not sure how much she should say, she backed away from him. “I need to see Ruri.” Something wasn’t right. If the gray wolf showed any interest at all in her, he would find himself flat on his back while she climbed atop him, right here in front of everybody.

  He said nothing but bowed his head in assent. The room suddenly felt much smaller and she had an uncomfortable flash of the horrid box Mary Alice had forced her into. No one was watching her, except Luther, and yet she knew everyone was aware of and tracking her. Ruri. She was upstairs and would explain exactly what was going on to her satisfaction, and she wouldn’t leave until Cassidy knew what the deal was.

  Suddenly angry, she stomped up the stairs. Her newly keen ears easily overheard the continuing sounds of passion that emanated from the main bedroom. Her nose told her who was in that room and what they were doing. How dare they get up to such things while she also burned to be touched.

  Since those points in her head seemed to be able to draw those around her closer, Cassidy examined those that sparkled barely out of reach. Ruri’s must be one of them, she reasoned. Carlos, Harold, Naomi, and now Luther were obvious to her. She couldn’t have said how, but she recognized each twinkling mote. Lewis was probably one of those at a bit of a remove, but she felt she could have reached out to him had she wished to. Given Ruri’s closeness, she should have been able to easily call the wolven to her, but she couldn’t. Ruri’s point was veiled somehow. Cassidy couldn’t pierce the veil, and the inability to bring her in fueled the anger that had sent her up the stairs in the first place.

  Screw this, Cassidy thought. I’m not going to swim through this mess by myself while those two amuse themselves! She pounded on the door once and stopped when the wood splintered under her fist.

  Ruri wanted to howl in exasperation. Mary Alice’s eyes met hers from her position between Ruri’s legs. That agile tongue had ceased its ministrations as soon as the door had shaken in its frame.

  “What the hell?” Mary Alice rolled to one side and strode toward the door, completely unfazed by her nudity. The human was almost wolven in her approach to the so-called baser aspects of life, it seemed. Ruri took advantage of the show and watched the play of ass muscles beneath her skin.

  Cassidy’s face on the other side of the door was priceless. Her sister might have been unconcerned by her lack of clothing, but Cassidy apparently didn’t share the feeling. It was a human conceit; one that Ruri knew would fade over time.

  “If you two are done, I have more questions.”

  “We’ll be a while,” Mary Alice said.

  The smoldering tension between the sisters flared back to life. Ruri knew better than to get between them, but she wondered how much trouble she’d be in if she grabbed each of them by the scruff of the necks and shook them soundly. Both Nolan sisters turned and shot her a look. Ruri shrugged and stared unconcernedly back at them. That’s interesting.

  “No.” Cassidy’s voice was flat. “You’re done.”

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do in my own house.”

  Cassidy looked ready to punch Mary Alice in the mouth. Strain filled in the room, barely shy of snapping. Ruri had a corresponding knot in her stomach. Her wolf whined softly in her mind and urged her to get out of the way. Then the tension faded as if it had never been. Cassidy’s frown wavered then reversed itself. She bent over, suddenly helpless with laughter.

  “‘In my house’? You’re really going to go there?”

  Mary Alice blinked down at her sister, confusion in her stance. She reached toward Cassidy, and then pulled back.

  “You sound just like Dad did. ‘Don’t touch that thermostat! When you have your own house you can keep it tropical for all I care.’” Cassidy wiped a tear from the corner of one eye. “It only took fifteen years for you to turn into him.”

  “That’s not fair!” Mary Alice’s voice went up indignantly. “It is my house.”

  “Sure it is, sweetie.” Cassidy actually reached out and patted her sister’s arm. “That reminds me, I’m going to need a dozen sleeping bags.”

  “What?” Mary Alice turned around and stared blankly at Ruri. “What is she talking about?”

  Ruri winced. She’d forgotten to warn the Hunter. It had been on the tip of her tongue until Mary Alice had looked at her with naked need on her face and in her scent. “We ran into some of my old pack. Not all of them went with MacTavish. Apparently some were able to escape.”

  “And they followed you home?”

  “Something like that. Cassidy accidentally challenged their leader and now she’s—”

  “Alpha.” Mary Alice whispered the word in a horrified breath.

  “Alpha,” Cassidy said. “Whatever that means.”

  “It means you’re a giant target now.”

  Ruri bounded off the bed and crossed the room in a few strides. She drew Cassidy through the doorway past her naked sister. “It means you’re the first and last thought of a group of wolven.” She couldn’t let Mary Alice pollute Cassidy against what had happened. It had been unanticipated, yes, but it was probably the best thing that could have happened to that group. They’d been barely holding on or they wouldn’t have been hiding out in a storm drain. “It means they’ll lay down their lives to keep your pack secure. It means you hold them in the palm of your hand and if you close your fist you’ll crush them. But if you cup them gently, you’ll shelter them from the worst this world has to offer.”

  She looked over at Mary Alice as she said the last. She’d meant it as an explanation, but Mary Alice clearly took it as an indictment. Her face closed up and she drew herself up to her full height.

  “Excuse me for not wanting every lone wolf with his eye on a pack to look at my sister as fresh meat.” She bent down, gathered her clothes and quickly pulled them on in economical jerks. “And don’t tell me there aren’t some of your kind who deserve exactly what I give them.” Mary Alice jammed her feet into her boots and clumped out of the room without bothering to tie them.

  �
�Mary…” Ruri reached out to her as she strode by, but the human shrugged her shoulder out of the way.

  A strangled noise pulled her attention back to Cassidy. Her face had gone white, and her eyes wide. They glowed crimson and electric blue at her.

  “What’s wrong?” Ruri asked.

  “I don’t know,” Cassidy mumbled. Her words were distorted by the sharp teeth that filled her mouth. She held up her hands, displaying the sharp claws tipping her fingers. “I feel like something’s wrong. The others are scared. No, they’re terrified.”

  “He’s already here.” Ruri snagged her pants and pulled them on then ran out the door. She wrestled her way into her shirt on the way down the stairs. If MacTavish had found them, it was better to face him clothed than naked. Cassidy would need her and Ruri knew they weren’t at the point where her Alpha would understand the nonverbal cues of her wolves. Cassidy would be a strong Alpha, but her newness was a potentially deadly handicap for them all.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Mary Alice thudded down the stairs, still fuming. How could Ruri take Cassidy’s side? Surely she saw how much danger her sister was in. Where had the wolven been when that whole disaster had unfolded?

  A small part of her brain whispered that she was being unreasonable, but she brushed it aside. Righteous anger felt too good. It was something she could be sure of, something that wouldn’t let her down. Now if only she had a target for it.

  As if her thoughts had conjured the woman, Mary Alice came around the corner into the living room and stopped dead in her tracks. For all that the room was crammed full nearly a dozen or so werewolves, it was quiet enough to hear a mouse fart. To the last one, the wolves’ attention was riveted to the slender woman who sat in a wooden armchair. They recognized a predator higher up on the food chain than they. It was likely a new experience for all of them.

  She spread out her senses, trying to feel if any of them were about to shift. Werewolves in human form didn’t register as strongly as those who had shifted. Those in the midst of a shift stood out in her mental landscape like a beacon. They all felt as if they were within moments of making the transition, and yet they hovered on the edge.

  “Malice,” Stiletto said, nodding slightly. Whether she was confirming something to herself or simply acknowledging her presence, Malice didn’t know.

  A low groan rippled through the room at her name, and a dozen glowing eyes quickly turned upon her. The boogeyman of their darkest stories was now made flesh in front of them. Malice smiled tightly.

  “Stiletto.” The code name had no discernible reaction to the assembled lycans. If they’d ever been on Stiletto’s home turf, that would not have been the case.

  The other woman looked perfectly comfortable, sitting straight-backed in the wooden chair. She looked as if she’d settled in for the long haul. Malice nodded toward the back door. This was bad enough already; she had to get Stiletto out of there before things deteriorated further. The room exploding in a fury of claws and fangs would be preferable to Cassidy or Ruri coming down those stairs.

  Light footsteps at the top of the stairs heralded her worst fears.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Malice said, trying to bury her desperation in nonchalance. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”

  “There are more lycans in this house. I want the measure of all of them.” She looked disdainfully at the group arrayed around the room. “These are of no consequence.”

  A muted rumble swept through the corners of the living room. The lycans didn’t like being dismissed, yet none of them moved so much as a muscle.

  “This is ridiculous.” Malice crossed the room in a flash and snatched at Stiletto’s elbow.

  Ever elusive, Stiletto shifted her arm just out of reach. In the same motion, she surged out of the chair and secured Malice’s forearm in a crushing grip.

  “Let go of her.” The voice from across the room was unwelcome in the extreme. She had to look over to see who had said it, distorted as the words were. It sounded like they’d been pushed out around a mouthful of sharp rocks.

  Both Cassidy and Ruri stood in the doorway, their eyes ablaze. Sharp teeth glittered in Cassidy’s mouth, and her muzzle already protruded from her face. With frantic shakes of her head, Malice tried to warn them to stand down.

  “They seem to know you pretty well around here,” Stiletto whispered in her ear. “Have you been fraternizing?”

  Before she could stop herself, Malice shifted her eyes over at Ruri. Sharp claws stood out in stark relief from the tips of her fingers.

  “I see.” Stiletto tightened her grip on Malice’s forearm. “So one of them is your new girlfriend. Uncle Ralph said there was something off about her. Wait until he finds out she’s one of the monsters you’re supposed to have taken care of.”

  “She’s done nothing wrong. No one here has. They’re what’s left over from the North Side pack after MacTavish took over.”

  “It’s a matter of time. You know that as well as I do. They’re monsters, Malice. They don’t play nice, no matter how prettily you ask. You can only use them as tools for so long, then you have to put them down.”

  Cassidy was there beside them. Fur was filling in around her eyes and down the muzzle that stuck out even further from her face. “I said let go of her. Are you deaf or stupid?”

  The pressure around Malice’s arm ceased. When she looked down, she saw that Cassidy had one of Stiletto’s fingers bent backward over her hand. This was bad. If Cassidy really was the Alpha to the lycans in the room, they wouldn’t tolerate her being attacked and no way was Stiletto going to let this pass.

  So fast that Malice almost couldn’t see it, Stiletto shed her sister’s grip. She spun Cassidy around in her grip and kicked her legs out from under her. Her sister lay face down on the ground, Stiletto’s knee in the small of Cassidy’s back. A chorus of growls and snapping bone filled the room. Ruri rushed forward, standing between where Cassidy was being held to the ground and the rest of the pack. Her eyes still blazed, but she’d kept from shifting any further, which was more than could be said for most of the others.

  Aside from Ruri, one other lycan had managed to hold onto his skin. He watched closely, readiness to act coiled along his body but staying carefully in check.

  “Stiletto, stop!” Malice lurched forward, horrified at how quickly everything had gone sideways.

  “This thing attacked me, soldier.” Stiletto’s mouth was set in a grim line and she forced angry words through the harsh slit.

  “She was protecting me.”

  “I saw that. This must be your new girlfriend.” A twist of disgust writhed across Stiletto’s lips.

  “Simone.”

  Stiletto looked up at the quiet use of her real name, shock splashed upon her face. Her eyes widened and she drew in a deep breath to attack before getting a grip of herself. It was more emotion than Malice had ever seen on the woman’s face, even during the most grueling portions of their training.

  “She’s my sister.” Everything in the room ground to a halt. Though Mary Alice had uttered the words in scarcely more than a whisper, it was loud enough for each of the lycans to hear. Cassidy alone didn’t stop. She continued to thrash and shift in Stiletto’s hold. She was nearly in full fur-form now and in the stunned silence, she completed the transformation.

  With a triumphant growl, Cassidy drew her legs under her and bucked while twisting. Stiletto lost her grip and fell to one side, catching herself on one outstretched arm. Cassidy threw herself at the woman, her long wolf body coiling and releasing like a hellish spring of fur and teeth. In the exhalation of the same breath, Mary Alice leaped at her sister, catching her around the neck, collaring her and holding her back. Wicked teeth scored the air and clashed together less than an inch from Stiletto’s neck.

  The lycan who’d managed to maintain his human form was suddenly at Cassidy’s other side, murmuring urgently into one laid back ear. Mary Alice struggled to keep Cassidy contained. Her sister was s
trong, at least as strong as any lycan she’d ever encountered. Thankfully she hadn’t picked up the moves a canny old wolf would know. She seemed to think she could brute force her way out of Mary Alice’s hold. It was possible, but Mary Alice had years of experience in wrangling Cassidy’s kind and knew where she could hold on and be reasonably protected from slashing claws and rending teeth. Letting go would be a problem, but she’d figure that out when she got there. What was that proverb about getting off a tiger? Odd how that seemed to perfectly describe her life.

  Slowly Cassidy settled down. Stiletto took advantage of Mary Alice’s restraint of her sister to slide backward and gain her feet in one motion. She surveyed the room, doubtless taking in the multitude of glowing eyes and dripping teeth. A large group of huge wolves stared back at her. She was good. Malice knew that from training. She’d only gotten better in the intervening years, but even she would have problems taking on a group this large in an enclosed space.

  The man talking into Cassidy’s ear sat back, and her sister relaxed slightly, no longer straining so desperately against her hold. Her muscles were still tight, rock hard beneath a layer of fur still sticking up in all directions from aggression, but they no longer quivered. When she loosened her own grip a hair, Cassidy relaxed even further.

  “She won’t stand down completely, not until she’s free,” the man said. His voice was rough, almost broken, but confident.

  Mary Alice looked down at the crazily patterned fur she held onto. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Cassidy… Actually, it was exactly that she didn’t trust Cassidy. Her sister was as strong as the strongest lycan she’d ever come up against, and she had next to no control. She had neither the benefit of a strong sire nor the experience to keep herself in check. If Uncle Ralph had set her upon another werewolf in this situation, Malice would have eliminated the lycan without hesitation. But this was her sister. She had to believe that enough of Cassidy still remained. What she needed was time and experience. Mary Alice needed to make sure her sister survived long enough to receive it.