Secrets of the Moon

by Kristy Centeno

  “If I had, I would be dead right now.”

  He rewarded me with his famous flirty smile that brought back boyish features to his face.

  “You’ve got a point there.” He pulled back from me and with his eyes, searched around behind me. “I have to call my family.”

  Still in a state of shock, I turned my gaze to the dead werewolf then back to Alexis. “Kyran…is this…Kyran?” I gulped down the nausea threatening to rise at any moment.

  “No, this isn’t Kyran.”

  “Then who’s this?”

  “I don’t know. There are more out there aside from us.” There it was, as plain as day, the truth. There were other werewolves in the area and apparently, the Rousseau’s didn’t want me to know. Why?

  “I have seen one roaming around my house.”

  His dark gaze intensified. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Tell you what?” I scowled at him. “I had no idea what it was when I first saw it. Now that I know what you guys are…I…put two and two together.”

  “Kyran…” He almost growled out the name. I could do nothing but stare at Alexis for a few seconds as he pondered the possibility that perhaps Kyran had been the lone werewolf roaming my house.

  “You think it was him?”

  “Maybe.” He stepped back from me and turned to walk to the side of the Lexus.

  It was then I realized, with much embarrassment, that Alexis was stark naked. Oh my God! I turned away from him immediately, and he must have thought my reaction quite humorous since I could hear his soft chuckle behind me. Well, Alexis was the first naked man I’d ever seen, and I saw everything! I could honestly say he had nothing to be ashamed about. I squeezed my eyes shut to get rid of the image of his well-endowed naked body, except that only made the vision come back to life in graphic detail. Oh God! I am such a perv.

  After the attack, I was too worried to notice his state of undress, but I noticed then.

  “Um…can’t you slip something on?” I focused my gaze ahead to the woods nearby.

  “Only if you let me borrow your pants, Princess.”

  “Not funny,” I murmured, but his loud laugh told me he’d heard me just fine. “How’s your leg?”

  “Fine, it’s already healing. It’s broken, but all that fighting placed the bone back in its original place. I’ll be as good as new in a little while.”

  Alexis was able to retrieve his cell from the wreckage that once used to be a very expensive red Lexus and called the Rousseau house to inform them of what happened and to ask for some clothing. Within five minutes, Marquis and Gage arrived in a black Audi I hadn’t seen before. My back was still to Alexis, whose naked body stood excessively close for my peace of mind.

  “Here, put this on.” Gage tossed clothing to Alexis, who caught it and dashed behind the car to dress.

  “What a mess.” Marquis inspected the scene of destruction with annoyance. He shook his head several times. Since the look on his face was anything but pleasant, I stepped back and kept my mouth shut. “We must get rid of this body as soon as possible. If there are others out there it won’t be long before they come looking for this one.”

  Alexis, now fully dressed, stepped out from behind the Audi and made his way to where Marquis, Gage, and I stood. I noticed he was no longer limping as much. “This one was intent on taking Marjorie.” Marquis’s attention immediately snapped away from the dead werewolf and focused on Alexis as he spoke. “He came after her, his attention was drawn to her the entire time. He couldn’t get rid of me fast enough to try to get to her. He was more than a little impatient about it, too.”

  I hated when people spoke about me as if I wasn’t even there.

  “There must be others in the area. This one wasn’t alone.” Marquis turned from Alexis to Gage. “Let’s start to clean up. Take the body and burn it. I’ll call Simone and ask her to come and help me remove the car. Alexis, take Marjorie home and stay with her until I call you.”

  “Wait! Hold on a second! What the hell is going on?” All three of them stopped to look at me. “I want to know what’s going on. I deserve to know!”

  Marquis stared at me without saying a word for what seemed to be a very long time. “There’s a large pack of man-eaters out there.” His gaze traveled from Gage to Alexis then back to me. “This one…” he pointed toward the dead werewolf, “belongs to that specific pack.” He shifted his attention to the nearby woods as he spoke. “His pack isn’t nearby, otherwise we would have been under attack by now. But they’ll sense his death and they’ll be coming to look for him soon. There have been some disappearances in the area which we’ve been investigating. We think this pack is responsible.”

  Disappearances? The campers! Susie Jones!

  “So this one wanted to eat me?” Their silence unnerved me. “Why are you not saying anything?” I asked when they wouldn’t answer me.

  “We think he wanted something else from you,” Marquis finally said.

  My eyes widened. “Like what?”

  The trio exchanged worried looks. “I’m sorry, Marjorie, but you’re in danger, much more than you realize.”

  “More like much more than I know, right?”

  Again the look exchanged between them. What else was there for me to find out?

  “His presence here only confirms our suspicions.” Marquis pointed to the dead werewolf.

  “Um…what suspicions?” I took a step forward, challenging him with one look.

  “That the pack might be after you, Marjorie.”

  My entire body felt numb after that. “Whoa! What’s going on?”

  He appeared hesitant to answer me. “You are different from most humans, Marjorie. You smell different from normal humans.”

  Do I offend? And what’s all this talk about normal humans?Does that mean I’m not normal? “How could that possibly be?” I asked, afraid to know the answer.

  “Something in you calls out to…us.” Marquis seemed a little embarrassed by saying that aloud. “Your blood emanates a strong and very different aroma, unlike anything we’ve ever encountered before.”

  “How come you said nothing of this to me before now?”

  “We weren’t sure,” Marquis replied simply. “We’re much more certain now.”

  “You are much more certain of what?” I wanted nothing more than for them to be straightforward but Marquis kept beating around the bush.

  “That the pack, or someone from it, is interested in you.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder how or when did they start to suspect someone was after me in the first place. “This all sounds really bad,” I said, voicing my fear.

  They all nodded in accordance with me.

  “We have to hurry and get this done. We not only have this urgency here, but we’ve got to get back to the house as soon as possible.” Marquis’s expression darkened.

  “Why? Is something wrong?”

  “It’s Kyran. He overheard our conversation and he wanted to come, but…” He sighed and looked away from me. “We had to detain him. He went berserk once he heard you were attacked.”

  Completely understandable was what I thought, but I said nothing. Not wanting to listen to how they had to detain Kyran to keep him from coming, I hurried to the black Audi and climbed inside.

  During the entire ride home, I kept trying to think up excuses I could use to explain why I was arriving home wearing pajamas, but as it turned out, I didn’t have too. Vicki and the girls weren’t home. After knocking for like the twentieth time, it was pretty clear that no one was home, so I asked Alexis to climb through my bedroom window and open the front door because my keys were still inside the house.

  Once inside, I found a note from Vicki that stated she’d gone shopping with the girls and wouldn’t be home until a little after eight. That brought instant relief; at least I knew they were safe somewhere far away from the house. The next order of business was to check the answering machine for any messages. And sure enough, I had like a millio
n calls from Tracy, Rosa, Claire, and even Angela. They’d left several worried messages asking why I wasn’t in school and what was going on with me. I listened to all the messages before deleting them. I knew they’d called my cell, but since it was lost, conversation would have to wait. There was also a call from Dr. Lawrence. He’d left a message too. I deleted it immediately.

  After offering my hero a quick snack, which he ate in a hurry, he took off into the woods to check for signs of any werewolf marking my house as his territory. Meanwhile, I decided to shower and dress so when Vicki arrived she would assume I was just coming in from a date.

  As soon as my feet touched the living room floor Alexis came in through the front door.

  “Well?” I looked at him expectantly. Though I was terrified he would communicate bad news, I still needed to know what he found. If he found anything at all.

  “Someone’s been here, all right.” He strolled into the living room, his gaze momentarily taking in his surroundings before they settled on me once again.

  “Any idea who?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “Huh?” I let out some air and straightened my back. “That response isn’t exactly helpful.”

  “Kyran has been here.”

  I had a feeling that was the case. “Okay, so is that all?”

  “No, I caught the scent of another werewolf. This one is strong, and he’s been here many times. He’s been watching you.”

  So, my fears were coming true. I was being stalked. “Do you have any idea who it might be?”

  “It wasn’t the same one that attacked you today, of that I’m sure. It’s someone else. I thought I recognized the scent, but…”

  “So if this werewolf has been watching me…?”

  “It means the man-eaters have taken an interest in you.” He confirmed my suspicions.

  “My family is in danger,” I whispered.

  “We’ll keep them safe, Marjie.” He was trying to reassure me, but it was hard to me reassured when there was a pack of man-eaters after me.

  “Tell me about your encounters with this werewolf.” He reached out and grabbed ahold of my hand.

  I related to him every traumatizing event down to the last detail.

  “The one by the corral and the one that chased you back to the barn was Kyran.”

  I blinked. “How would you know that?”

  He shrugged. “I just know it. It’s a…twin thing.” He looked at me and smiled.

  “Why didn’t he attack me? I mean…he had the chance. I was totally vulnerable out there with him.”

  “That…I don’t know. By all rights he should have, but…”

  “He didn’t.” I finished his sentence. “He only scared the bejesus out of me.”

  He nodded, looking more than a little confused.

  “What about the other one, the one that got his eye smashed in?” I asked.

  “That is another reason why I know that one wasn’t Kyran. Kyran never came back with a busted eye. Had he been injured, I would have known. I would have felt it.”

  Well, my life had just been turned upside down and by the looks of things this was only the beginning. What else was going to be tossed my way? What other tests would I be forced to endure?

  “Great! So I have other werewolves lusting for my blood, stalking me. And here I was worrying about one werewolf and now it turns out I have to worry about an entire pack.”

  “Oh, they are lusting for more than just your blood.” He gave me a half smile but underneath that I sensed something more.

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “They want you as a mate.”

  I actually felt all the color leave my face. “All of them?”

  “As the rules go, the alpha has a right to choose a mate before the betas because he’s the one in charge. However, this pack is apparently competing with each other for one mate.”

  “Me?” Oh, that sounded so disgusting.

  “Yes. Nothing they do makes much sense to us. We’ve been studying them since we got here. They are extremely disorganized for a pack with an alpha. A pack always has an alpha. He’s the one who dictates who goes where, who does what. It’s his job to watch over the betas and keep them in their place. He’s always number one in command and normally he’s the strongest male in the pack. This local pack is different. I don’t think they have much appreciation for their alpha because they are plotting against him. The betas are unpredictable and fight each other over power. They are ambitious, dangerous, and completely volatile. They have an idea about how they are going to achieve power over the main alpha leader.”

  “How?”

  He didn’t answer me then, but he didn’t have to. I already knew the answer. They would achieve power over the alpha if they forced me to be the mate of whoever was in charge, whoever won.

  Reality finally set in and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. I was in the middle of a huge werewolf war and I was the grand prize. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Alexis rushed forward to grab me when I swayed a little. He helped me sit on the couch and then sat next to me.

  I fought back the nausea and glanced up to look at him. “Alexis?”

  “Yes?” He tucked a lose strand of hair behind my ear.

  “I’m really confused. I mean, how did you get all of this information to begin with?”

  “Like I said, we’ve been spying on them since we got here.” He paused to take my hand in his. “When I bit the werewolf I was fighting earlier, I was able to get some information through his blood.”

  “How?”

  “Your entire life is imprinted in your blood. Once we bite someone, we receive tons and tons of information. However, that is not always a safe bet because sometimes the information passes by too quickly. Anyway, this whole shindig is part of their plan to name a new leader. Someone who will treat them as equals and not dictate their every move like this guy does. They don’t agree with how he rules over the pack. They battle each other to see who’s strong enough to go against their leader. They want to beat him at his own game. The only way they can achieve this is by taking what the alpha leader wants the most. In this case, that would be you.”

  I tried to make sense of everything, but it was impossible. “Why me?”

  “I don’t know. Apparently their leader has never spoken of his reason as to why he wants you. And that werewolf I killed was part of his pack but never associated with the alpha directly.”

  “When are they planning on attacking? What’s the leader’s game and why does it involve me?” Why did I have to be involved in this make-no-sense game? I was just an ordinary nineteen-year-old college girl, for crying out loud! I had no idea why I’d become the main focus of every werewolf within a fifty-mile radius. Damn it, two weeks ago I was leading a normal life. Now, rogue packs and crazy man-eaters were plotting to use me as…what…exactly?

  “All I know is that the alpha leader of this particular pack is very powerful, strong, and extremely dangerous. They are very afraid of him. He’s killed several betas that have spoken against him before, and if he finds out about this plan of theirs he’ll annihilate them all. He tolerates very little from them and he lets them know every chance he gets. He has it all, except a mate.”

  “I don’t get it. Why does having a mate make the alpha more powerful? Isn’t he all tough and mighty all on his own?”

  “The bloodline needs to be secured. The female werewolf is the only one that can do this. The female secures it by bonding with the male for life. That way, the alpha is assured that all pups born from his mate are his and that they carry the blood from his direct ancestors.” Alexis explained.

  Pups? Was he for real? “He’s able to tell if the pups…babies…are his or not?”

  “That’s one of the many perks of being a werewolf—you always know that your children are actually yours.” He winked at me and released my hand.

  “I hate to imagine what would happen to that female if she cheats on the
alpha.”

  “The bonding also ensures that there is no cheating involved.” When I tossed an incredulous look in his direction, he added, “Yeah, when we’re bonded we only feel attraction and sexual desire for our mate.”

  “Okay, but don’t you guys normally marry, bond, mate with your own kind?” I tapped my foot impatiently on the floor. Talking about this whole mess really wasn’t helping as much as I’d hoped.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not a werewolf! Or did that just happen to escape everyone’s notice?”

  Alexis didn’t even react to my outburst. “We know that…”

  Why did I sense a big “but” coming on?

  “But your case is different.”

  “Because I smell different?” I all but yelled. “This has to be some kind of bad joke!”

  “It’s not just your smell, Marjorie. Something about your essence is also different.”

  I shook my head in denial. “No, I’m just a normal young adult like any other.”

  “Yeah, well, the alpha doesn’t think that way, and he’s very determined to have you at all costs.”

  “Damn it! He won’t have me!”

  “From the very first moment we saw you we knew something about you was off. I don’t really know how to explain it. We don’t really understand any of it ourselves.”

  He looked away from me for a moment before turning his face back to me. His normally silver eyes were now a dark gray.

  “But we’re trying to find out what’s going on, why this pack leader wants you so badly, and how they manage to avoid us. Most important, we’re trying to stop them from killing innocent people. We have our work cut out for us, but we’ll manage, Marjie. We’ll keep you safe.” He rose from the couch and started for the front porch.

  “That’s it? You’re done answering questions?” I ran after him but as I got to the doorway, I saw Vicki pulling up. After a quick introduction and brief lie, Alexis said his goodbyes and left. But I knew he wasn’t really leaving. He would be around the house, on guard, possibly the entire night. Knowing he was out there watching over us made me feel a lot better.