Blood Moon: Book 2 of the True Mates Series: A Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance

by Alicia Montgomery

  "Thank you, Cady." And the line went dead.

  What could Victoria want? Why did she threaten to reveal her secret and then turn around and tell her she'd get out of her life? Cady shook her head and went to her closet to find something appropriate to wear. It didn't matter. The only thing that did was that Victoria would be out of her life soon enough.

  ***

  Cady waited for almost hour, drinking bad coffee and waving away the young, tired-looking waitress several times. I should have known.

  The hands one the clock over the door pointed at 3 and 12. Victoria wasn't late, she just didn't show up. She duped Cady and that was that. Disgusted, the redhead dropped some bills on the table and left the diner, waving a passing cab to take her back to The Enclave. All she wanted was a shower, bed, and then Nick to come to her in the morning.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The smell of fresh coffee brewing, toast, and bacon woke her up. Glancing at her bedside table, she saw it was barely 7 am. She smiled, got up, brushed her teeth and washed her face quickly, then bounded into the kitchen.

  Nick stood by her stove, wearing a white towel as a makeshift apron, watching over a pan of bacon.

  "I didn't even know I had bacon," she quipped as she came closer.

  The handsome Lycan gave her a grin and then crossed the distance between them. "You didn't," he wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her close. "I brought it in from the house. As well as three loaves of bread, compliments of Garret." The loaves, which looked freshly-baked, were sitting on the counter.

  "Smells amazing," she closed her eyes.

  "Yes, and so does the breakfast," Nick swooped in for a kiss. Cady wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She eagerly opened her mouth as his tongue sought hers, tasting her and savoring her. Unfortunately, her stomach chose that time to remind her about the delicious food.

  "Sorry," she pulled away, embarrassed. "I haven't eaten since last night."

  Nick patted her playfully on her behind. "Go sit and I'll serve you up a plate."

  Cady obeyed and in a few minutes, Nick put down a plate heaping with eggs, bacon, and bread in front of her. She ate every morsel of it.

  "Hungry much?" he teased as he bit into a piece of bread.

  "Is there more bacon?" she asked hopefully, peering behind him.

  Nick laughed and stood up, grabbing the last four pieces and putting it on her plate. "Here you go, eat up. Can't have you getting weak and hungry." His voice was light, but full of meaning.

  She practically devoured the last pieces, her appetite finally appeased for now. She spied the last piece of bread, and Nick sighed, handing her the basket.

  "Done?" he asked impatiently.

  "Yes," she answered as she polished the last bit of egg on her plate.

  "Good." Without another word he stalked over to her side of the table, pulled her up, and carried her bridal style into his arms.

  "Wait!" she giggled. "Aren't you supposed to wait 30 minutes after eating before any activity?"

  "That's swimming, sweetheart," he kissed her ear. "I don't think that applies to sex."

  She shrieked as he dumped her unceremoniously on her bed, and began to take off his clothes. Watching him with hooded eyes, she admired his long, lean body, muscled chest, and the trail of light blonde hair below his abs, teasing what was below his belt.

  Nick was gentle, yet still passionate and urgent when he took her. All other times it seemed like sex between them was like a storm, loud and thunderous, leaving her spent and breathless. This morning, he seemed almost careful, reverent. He caressed and tasted her, bringing her to orgasm twice. As he thrust up into her, he cradled her face with his hands and pressed his forehead against hers, moaning out her name as he orgasmed hard and fast. He collapsed on top of Cady, then rolled to the side to gather her into his arms.

  Speechless and spent, she lay there, watching as the sun began to fill her room.

  "I couldn't sleep last night," he confessed, nuzzling her neck.

  "Hmmm?" She turned around and touched his cheek, rubbing the slight stubble that had begun to grow. "What's wrong?"

  "I was thinking," he began. "I don't need it...any of it."

  "Don't need what?" Her eyes felt droopy, and she closed them with a yawn.

  "The house. The businesses. All of it. I've enough money on my own to last me a lifetime and I'm well compensated by Fenrir and the clan."

  "Oh...wait, what?" Her eyes flew open. "What are you talking about?"

  Before he could answer, a soft chirping sound rang through the room. Cady's phone began to dance as it vibrated on her bedside table. "Ignore it," he ordered, and then continued. "I'm talking about Vasili's ultimatum. I don't need to do what he says. Dmitri can have the house."

  Cady shot up in bed. "You can't be serious?"

  "Why not?" he asked, then sat up to face her. "You don't think it's selfish of him to dangle my heritage to get what he wants? I should have walked away from the beginning and refused to play his game." The phone continued to ring, buzzing insistently. As Cady reached for it, Nick grabbed her hand and turned her to face him. "They can wait."

  The redhead hesitated, but put her hand down. "But..." Cady thought of the house, that beautiful mansion. "It's where you grew up. Where your father grew up. It would mean so much to your parents."

  "My parents are dead," his tone was even. "They have been for a long time."

  Cady's eyes widened. "And Vasili is your last living relative."

  "And if that meant anything to him, he wouldn't have given me that ridiculous condition," Nick's expression hardened. "Why are you being like this all of a sudden?"

  She turned away, hiding her face from him. Closing her eyes, she tried to stop the tears threatening to spill. Oh Nick...if only I had been honest. But it was too late. It wasn't Vasili holding her back the whole time. In a way, she was using the ultimatum as an excuse not to tell him about being a half-witch. If they never had a chance to be together to begin with, it didn't matter, so she didn't need to tell him. If she confessed now Nick would hate her forever and lose the one thing he held dear. She couldn't let him do that. But, before she could say anything, another ringing sound came, this time, from somewhere on the floor.

  Nick's expression immediately changed when he heard the phone, turning serious and stoic. "That's Grant," he got up and grabbed his pants.

  Cady took the opportunity to pick up her own phone, which had not stopped buzzing the whole time. It was Alynna.

  "Alynna," Cady greeted. "Good morning, sorry, we came in late last night and I had a hard time getting up," she lied.

  "Cady!" the younger woman's voice sounded frantic. "You have to come to the office, now!"

  Hearing the panic in Alynna's voice made Cady's heart speed up. She turned to look at Nick, who was on the phone with Grant, his face grim.

  "What's wrong?"

  "There's been another attack. Someone set off a firebomb at Fenrir."

  ***

  The scene outside Fenrir Corp was total chaos. Fire, police, paramedic and other emergency responders swarmed around the building, while reporters and news vans were desperately trying to get into the area.

  As soon as they got off the phone, both Nick and Cady sprang into action. It was like slipping into their old skin, and now they were not Nick and Cady, but they were Grant's right and left hands. Wordlessly, they dressed and got into Nick's car, speeding downtown to Fenrir.

  Grant, being the CEO of Fenrir and the face of the company, was already being briefed by their lawyers and PR firm so he could make a statement. As Human Liaison and Executive Assistant to Grant, Cady's first concern was the employees. That included Alynna, who seemed almost dazed, standing outside Fenrir watching the scene unfold. Alex stood by her side, a comforting arm around his wife. Cady knew that Alynna needed to do something, so she put the young couple in charge of securing a place where they could convene. She sent them to The Hamilton Hotel to book as many rooms for
employees who might need a place to stay nearby and temporary headquarters to gather and pick up the pieces while the Fenrir building was blocked off.

  Cady gathered the employees who had been evacuated, telling them to go home and be with their families and wait for an announcement when they could come back (though some of them opted to stay and help). She then had to take care of employees who were hurt and possibly, dead. Still, there was so much more work to do.

  Nick had his hands full as well. Aside from having to piece together what happened on the scene, he was also in charge of damage control. His first call was to the Police Chief Deputy of New York and the Fire Department Chief. He didn't know the exact cause, but instinct told him that with the series of attacks, it was probably Lycan-related. If they hoped to cover up anything, it would have to be now.

  By mid-morning, he was in a meeting with Grant, Police Chief Andrews, and Commissioner O'Grady, sitting around a table in one of the conference rooms at The Hamilton.

  "We can't explain it," Commissioner O'Grady shook his head. "It was definitely some type of homemade explosive. We found traces of a timer and possibly a case, but with the size of the damage, the device should have been at least twice the size."

  "Our CSI guy said that the device was probably as big as a brick," Deputy Police Chief Andrews showed them a picture of a burned-out clock timer. "But they can't find traces of any explosive, chemical, or anything that could have possibly made such an explosion."

  "Could it have been mailed to you?" O'Grady asked.

  "Our security protocols are pretty strict, especially in the mail room," Nick rubbed his jaw. "Believe it or not, we have state-of-the-art x-rays and chemical detectors that examine all packages before they go into the building. We had them installed a few years ago."

  "One of your people then?" Andrews offered cautiously.

  "We don't allow outsiders in our mailroom and everyone who goes in goes through the same detectors," Grant replied. "And I can't imagine who would do this. Our HR is top notch, no one slips through."

  The two men looked at each other. "Mr. Anderson, this might be something beyond us," Andrews rubbed his forehead. "Perhaps something...not of our world?"

  "We can't explain it," O'Grady added. "It may be time for you to consult your own sources."

  Grant nodded. "Yes, this is something we need to keep internal. Thank you, gentlemen, for your help, as always."

  "Of course, Alpha," Andrews stood up and shook Grant's hands. "We've kept this to as few people as possible. Just my head CSI guy, and the first responders."

  "And the guys from Ladder 453 who looked through the scene, I have the list here," O'Grady pushed a piece of paper towards the Lycan, but hesitated. "You won't...scramble their brains too much, will ya?"

  Grant shook his head. O'Grady was a human ally, but they usually never needed his help for anything. "They'll be fine, Commissioner. No harm will come to them, but they may be confused for a few days. You might want to suggest to their captain to give these guys some time off."

  The Fire Commissioner seemed appeased, and he shook hands with both men before leaving with the Deputy Police Chief.

  "I'll make sure they all get the potion," Nick took the list from Grant. Although the higher ups in the police and fire departments were allies of the New York clan, their people were not aware of the existence of Lycans in the world. Thus, they kept a stash of confusion potion on hand for situations like this. "It might deplete our stores for a bit." The potion was notoriously hard to get a hold of, since they were made by witches, who were not fond of the Lycans. Nick had to go through several channels to buy it, and by the time the potion came to him, it had already passed through so many hands that the price was exorbitant.

  "But worth it," Grant let out a breath and massaged the bridge between his nose. He collapsed back in the chair. "What a mess."

  "Don't you wish we had some of that Torlyncă right now," Nick leaned back into his own seat.

  "Maybe we can get room service to send us a bottle of whiskey or something," Grant sighed. "Could use a drink or five right now."

  "You and me both," Nick picked up the picture of the timer. "So, a device that mysteriously appeared in our office and left no traces of an explosive or chemical and half the size it should be."

  "There could only be one explanation." Grant offered.

  "Magic," Nick said with distaste. Fenrir was definitely not protected by any sort of magical charm, unlike The Enclave. It was simply too big and too busy.

  "Right," Grant put his hands on the conference table. "Call Dr. Cross in."

  "She'll be in today," Nick picked up the phone. "I'll get her in to examine the mailroom."

  ***

  "I want those videos, and I want them now!" Alynna roared into her cellphone. "You tell your boss that the footage from Blood Moon better be on my server in 15 minutes or he can kiss the contract goodbye...you bet I'll make it happen, buster, don't try me!" She wished she was on her phone in the office, it would have been so much more satisfying to slam the receiver down on that whiny IT guy. "Argghh!" she groaned in frustration. When this was over, the first thing she was going to do was to tell Grant to fire that two-bit, so-called security company that Blood Moon hired and do it in house or have her vet their next contractor.

  "Please don't get too stressed out, baby doll," Alex walked into their temporary headquarters at The Hamilton Hotel and soothed his wife, rubbing her arm.

  "How can I not get stressed?" Alynna tugged her arm away. "We've been waiting for that footage for over 2 weeks! We're under attack, Alex, don't you care? How can you just sit there and look calm?"

  Alex put his hands on his wife's shoulder. "Because panicking won't do us any good," he kissed the top of her head. "I know you're angry, and so am I. We all are. But if we have any hope of finding whoever's out to get us, then we all need to have cool heads." He gathered her into his arms, and although she resisted, she finally relaxed.

  "You're so smart, you know?" she murmured into his chest.

  "Well that's why you married me, I guess?" he grinned down at her.

  "I'm sorry for going off on you," she pulled away and took a deep breath. He answered by stroking her hair. "Ok, what do we know so far?"

  Alex and Alynna had followed Cady's directions and went straight to The Hamilton. The manager, Jake Evans, had seen the news and was more than happy to help. He cleared out the top two floors of the hotel, including their Presidential Suite, which they had designated as their headquarters for now. They still couldn't get into Fenrir, but it was a good thing that all their servers and IT department were actually offsite, in an undisclosed location in Brooklyn. It took a few hours, but their IT guys were able to set up some new laptops in the suite to mirror their computers in the office. They had access to everything, including the video and evidence they had previously gathered. They got to work as soon as they could, while Grant, Nick, and Cady took care of everything else.

  "Well," Alex sat down in front of his borrowed laptop. "At exactly 8 am, there was a large explosion on the 8th floor of the Fenrir Building. The mailroom and most of the south-east corner was destroyed. There were 20 people clocked in. Eighteen are in the hospital, two of them in critical condition and..." Alex shook his head. "Two dead bodies were found. Traces of dead bodies," Alex choked, but cleared his throat. "Unidentified by the authorities for now, but when cross-checked with the records of people signed in at the time versus our people at the hospital, the only ones unaccounted for are Marilyn Wasser, a human manager and John Burns, a Lycan mail clerk."

  Alynna put her face in her hands. Dead. Two people dead. It was bad enough when it was only her under attack, but now people were dying. "We have to stop whoever's doing this! What do we know about the explosion?"

  Alex's jaw tightened, but he continued. "I just spoke on the phone with Nick. He had some expert come in and examine the scene, a Dr. Jade Cross, a Lycan R and D scientist. Nick was able to sneak her into the mailroom and s
he did a preliminary examination. She said it was probably some type of device using by Ognevaia."

  "Ok, what's that?"

  "It's a type of flammable substance. Think molotov cocktail, but powered by magic. It explodes like wildfire, virtually undetectable by modern technology and leaves no traces afterwards. And you only need a small amount to make an explosion that big. That's the only reason she thinks it's Ognevaia. Dr. Cross says it seems like the device was planted in the mailroom and set to explode at 8 am."

  "Magic?" Alynna

  "Yes, that's why Nick had Dr. Cross examined the room. Apparently, she's our Lycan expert on all things magical."

  "So, magic meaning...witches, possibly?" If she remembered her crash course in all things Lycan and magical correctly, only witches could use magic.

  Her husband nodded. "That's what it looks like."

  Alynna sighed. "I don't know anything about witches and warlocks."

  "We've had an informal truce with them for about a hundred years," Alex's brows knitted. "Why they'd start attacking us, I don't know. Grant will have to alert the Lycan High Council if it turns out the witches are violating the truce."

  A ringing interrupted the couple. "Hello?" Alynna picked up her phone. "Ok, good! Yes, download it to the server, I'll look at it now." She sighed. "Blood Moon's CCTV footage is finally in!"

  "Good, I have the ones from Fenrir too, good thing all our security is in-house."

  "Let's get to work."

  It took about twenty minutes for them to download all the footage and they sat down on their respective laptops to start combing through the evidence.

  "I'll take the Fenrir one, you do the Blood Moon," Alynna said. "I'll start going backwards, from 8 am. If you're done before I am, you can help me. If this device had a timer it could have come in at any point in the last 24 to 48 hours."

  "Right," Alex pulled up his footage.

  They worked in silence. Alynna opened the files from the server, starting with the ones from inside the mailroom. It showed a bird's eye view of the entire office. She started at 8 am, right when the feed was cut off. It was difficult to see the explosion, but she grit her teeth and watched the footage, setting it at double speed. The activity seemed normal enough, people arriving for work, going to their desks