Dark Moon (Illumination Book 1)

by Paige Taylor

  Walking back towards Zane’s bike after the show, I have an idea while staring down at the tattooed arm rubbing against mine, our hands woven together.

  “I want a Mate tattoo, Z,” I say as we wait to cross the road. His head turns to look down both sides of the street before walking us across.

  “Random, but okay, Angel, what do you have in mind?” he asks without hesitation. I must have a surprised look on my face because before I can answer his question he already has a response.

  “I can’t exactly judge on the tattoo front, now can I?” He chuckles, lifting his tattoo sleeved arm up for us to inspect.

  “No, I suppose you can’t. I want a Mate tattoo, one that incorporates all four of you, and I’d like you all to have it as well,” I say, slinging his arm around my shoulders and snuggling in closer to his side.

  “I’d love that but, Ava, aren’t you scared of needles?” he asks, pulling me in tighter when we come to a stop beside his bike.

  “Yeah, but I figure with you guys there I would have to grow some lady balls and just get over it. Plus, seeing you guys get it and not having one, wouldn’t sit right with me, so I’d have to get one,” I explain, trying not to think about needles repetitively piercing my skin. Oh god, don’t vomit, don’t vomit. Don’t vomit.

  “Wait, how did you know I was afraid of needles?” I question. I don’t think I’ve told anyone that recently.

  “When I first saw you at the club, some first-aid person kept trying to jab you with some morphine. After their third attempt to get it in, you stole the needle off them, slammed it into their thigh, and asked them how they liked being stabbed with the pinprick from hell. You don’t really forget a thing like that. You went from total bad-ass in the cage to completely petrified within a few minutes,” he says, his whole body vibrating with supressed laughter.

  “Oh yeah, laugh it up. It’s not like it was a harrowing experience or anything.” Crossing my arms, and burying myself further into his strong arms, I hide my pout from his face.

  “I promise to protect you from all needles you don’t specifically ask for. Is that better?” he teases.

  “Much better, much less judge-y and more Mate-like,” I say lifting my face to his, and smiling up at him.

  “Come on, let’s get you home before we get arrested for public indecency,” Zane replies as he unwinds us and hands off my helmet and leather jacket.

  “It’s only public indecency when you get caught!”

  “Jesus Christ, why did I decide to call you Angel again?”

  “Dunno, but it’s stuck there now!” I laugh as I pull on the helmet and get ready to jump on the bike behind him, I’m ready to be at home with my Mate.

  “Wait, Zane. Where are we staying?” I ask, wondering why I had never delved deeper into where Zane sleeps at night.

  “Wade gave me a room at his pack house so that I didn’t have to drive back and forth from town every day. It’s not too bad of a drive, but the closer I am to you, the better it is for everyone. Before all this, though? I built myself a cabin in the woods just outside of town, away from pack lands.”

  “I’d like to visit one day, you know, after we aren’t being attacked by vampires,” I say pushing my helmet back down and into place, squeezing myself behind Zane’s big frame. Once again trying to minimise as much of my body as I can to reduce exposure to the wind. Wolves may run hot, but no matter what, wearing a dress on a bike for 30 minutes at high speed is going to make you fucking cold.

  “I’d love that, Angel. Just you, me, and the woods,” he responds before revving the engine and speeding back towards the pack. The image of a brighter future for all of us, care-free, in the woods is enough to keep my smile all the way home.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I close my eyes and tilt my head up towards the heat of the sun’s rays, enjoying one of the few days off I’ve had in the last two weeks. Between the pack meetings, strategizing for the vampire crisis, and taking on the extra trainings of both packs, I feel like I’ve had no time to see my Mates, let alone plan my Mating ceremony. Thankfully, the planning of said ceremony has been mostly taken over by the lovely ladies I was currently trying to drown out. In a few short weeks, Sophie and Annabelle had fast become a constant in my life, I saw them at least once a day at the pack meetings. Once they had caught on to the fact that I was not an organiser by nature, their planning for my ceremony began, which is how, on my one day off, I ended up here on a park bench, trying to tune out colour scheme ideas.

  “Ava! Are you listening?” Annabelle accuses as I lift one eyebrow in response to my name.

  “I was, until you guys went off on a tangent about what was a more appropriate colour for an Alpha Mating ceremony, Byzantium or dark violet. It’s all the same colour to me,” I explain, my shoulders shrugging.

  “Well, we settled on Byzantium, in case you were interested. But, what I was asking was if you had had a chance to look at those dress magazines?” Sophie chimed in, her ever present smile glowing on her face.

  “Oh, yeah I did. There were a few I really liked. Maybe this week, we could go in and try a few on?” I suggest. I need to get as much ceremony work done as possible this week. We had hit a lull in our intel from other packs, and we wouldn’t hear back from our sources for most of the week, might as well get this sorted before shit hits the fan.

  “Sounds perfect, we can go in tomorrow, as long as you two don’t have any plans?” Annabelle asks. I can see why Steven is so in love with his Mate, she’s beautiful, funny, and does not fuck around.

  “Sounds good to me,.” Sophie agrees.

  “Me too. Now, onto the good stuff, someone please give me news that is not related to wedding planning,’’ I chuckle, almost bouncing in my seat, my hands clasped together in front of my face. One of the things I’ve begun to secretly love is knowing all the gossip between the two packs, it’s like my own living, breathing soap opera.

  “Oh, do I have something for you! So, you know how you beat the crap out of Rachel in the challenge? Well, apparently, she was telling people outside of the Packs you cheated by taking on all of them at the same time.” My mouth literally falls open at the news.

  “What. The. Fuck? Where is this bitch? I’ll show her fucking cheating!” I yell, starting to rise from my seat. Before I can stand, I feel Sophie’s soft hand clasp my wrist and send calming vibes through me until I sit back down.

  “That’s not the best part. Apparently, some of the other members of the two Packs heard, and literally pulled her out of the bar, threw her in a car, and drove her straight to Wade, where he put her on cleaning duty of the teenage dorms for two months!” Annabelle bursts out laughing at the end of the sentence, hunching over the table to bang her fist on the table.

  “Oh my god!” I laugh so hard that I start snorting which sets off a twinkle of a giggle from Sophie. Just the thought of Rachel having to clean up after a bunch of teenagers for two months was beyond hilarious. Rachel has become a permanent thorn in my side; so much so, that the urge to beat her to a bloody, fucking pulp is so strong that someone has to hold me back, usually. It’s not that she talked shit in the challenge that bothers me, I can deal with that any day of the week. What bothers me is her turning up to Wade’s pack house dressed in what can only be described as colourful condoms that barely cover her boobs. She only ever turns up when I’m not there, requesting to see her Alpha privately and then trying to touch every available piece of skin on him. Thankfully, there is always someone around to watch her get put in her place for being overly handsy. She’s also very fortunate I wasn’t here at the time to put my fist in her face for touching what was mine.

  “In other news, I heard that one of the men from Dylan’s pack was caught unawares by a very angry badger, it turns out the badger did not appreciate someone urinating next to its home and bit the guy’s penis,” Sophie whispers in a horrified voice, before breaking out in giggles once again. Both Annabelle and I look at each other, the visuals of a guy getting hi
s dick bitten by a badger flashing across our minds, before we erupt in laughing fits, too.

  “Did you find a dress today, Beautiful?” Dylan asks me as he drives me out to an undisclosed location. We had just finished a quick dinner at Dylan’s Pack an hour before he ushered me out the door saying he had a surprise dessert location planned for me.

  “Actually, yeah, I did. It was probably the fourth or fifth dress I tried on. I honestly never thought I’d have that moment where I put on a dress, and I would just know instantly that it was meant to be mine, but I did. I just put it on, and it was magical, it felt like me,” I say, reminiscing the trip to the bridal store yesterday with Sophie and Annabella.

  “I can’t wait to see you in it, surrounded by us, getting Mated. I feel like the days are a tossup between excitement because our mating is getting closer and fear that our time is being cut short by the ‘What if’s’ that we’re constantly planning for,” his tone morphs from happiness to frustration by the end of the sentence. He isn’t the only one who feels like the ‘what if’s’ are following us around.

  “We just have to take things one day at a time, babe, we keep low-key tabs on packs around the country. We continue to track the pattern of these vampires, and we keep looking. We go until we exhaust all our options, and we do everything we can to keep our Packs safe,” I state firmly, squeezing Dylan’s hand to make him turn his head to see the seriousness in my eyes before he turns back to the road.

  “I know, I just hate that this has all happened within the first few weeks of finding you. All I want to do is take you away to Fiji and just lay there for two weeks doing nothing but you,” he replies, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

  “Well, when all this is sorted, and we get our happy ever after, we will all take off for at least a week to Fiji. Just you guys, me, and minimal clothing, I think that sounds great,” I suggest, running my fingers up and down his arms suggestively.

  “Sounds fucking fantastic to me, beautiful.”

  “Where are we going?” I ask, hoping that it’s similar to our last outdoor outing. Mm, I could definitely go for some naked, outdoor activities right about now.

  “I have this spot I go to every now and again when life is just getting a bit too overwhelming. It reminds me that even though my decisions feel like the most important thing in the world, we are all just a very tiny speck in a very large universe. I have a plan for every contingency, but the place I’m taking you to is the one place that allows me to not need those plans, where the world drops away.”

  “Are you sure you want me there?” I ask tentatively. This is his place, the place where he is his most vulnerable, and he wants to share it with me. The feelings coursing through me are indescribable.

  “There is no one else I would want to share this with.” His hand moves over to palm my face as his thumb briefly rubs over my lips and cheek before turning back to the road.

  Within minutes, Dylan has us parked at the top of a hill that is surrounded in trees and unless you knew it was here, you wouldn’t venture up with a car. I hop out of my seat and walk over to the edge of the hill, the pines thinning until I see the beautiful landscape in front of me. The sky is scattered with thousands upon thousands of iridescent stars. Beautiful, dark mountains with their tips touched by moonlight, illuminated by the stars surrounding them. Off to the far left a cluster of bright lights emanate from the ground which must be the closest city. This view is breathtaking, and Dylan was right, it makes me feel like the smallest speck of dust in the universe.

  “I love you,” I whisper, so quietly that I’m not even sure he can hear it. Without a word, his arms sneak around my stomach, pulling me into his chest, one of his hands moving my chin until we are staring at each other.

  “Ava, since the moment you walked into my life I have had love for you. You are the optimist to my pessimist and the spontaneity to my organisation, and I never want to waste a second of this life without you in it. I love you.” Every word out of his mouth crumbles the walls around my heart, our mating bond glows so bright inside my soul that it’s hard to see anything but him in this moment.

  I wrap my arms around his neck and lay kisses all over his face until I reach his lips. My hands tangle in his hair as our lips seal together, moving against each other in severe urgency. I need to throw every cent of my love towards him physically and through our bond. I can feel, rather than hear, the groans and moans rumbling out of Dylan’s body, the vibrations tingling across my chest as it’s pressed to his. Before I am ready, Dylan pulls us back until we are both facing the skyline in front of us, panting like we have just run a marathon.

  “I love you, too, Dylan, so much. In such a short amount of time, you have come to mean so much to me. I love that you’re a planner, that you process and organise thoughts faster than anyone I’ve ever met. I love that you play crosswords and Sudoku’s because you actually enjoy the challenge, that you share a love of Adam Sandler movies with me and you laugh at all the same spots as I do. You are more than what I could have imagined would be possible in a Mate. I love every inch of you,” I say, still panting, but more so from the emotion choking me, rather than the physical exertion of the kiss before.

  Dylan’s body moves around mine until he is standing in front of me, his hands interlock with mine and gently pull me towards the edge of the hill. He lowers himself to his knees in front of me, and I lower myself, too. His fingers let go of mine as his arms band around my upper and lower back, pulling me in tighter towards his body. His mouth finding the space between my neck and my ear, sending shivers trembling down my spine with every kiss. I twine my arms around his neck and pull his face back to mine, our mouths meeting in a slow, sensual kiss. Our tongues move against each other, slowly teasing each other with quick licks across each other’s lips. Dylan pushes his body weight into mine, forcing me to move backwards until I’m lying on the ground with him above me. His hands run up and down my chest and hips, every touch setting my nerve endings on fire.

  “Who knew you were such an exhibitionist?” I ask rhetorically between kisses, my hands moving to his shirt buttons, slowly pulling each button from its hole before rolling the shirt down his shoulders.

  “Only with you, I’ve never done this with anyone but you. You, in the moonlight, undoes me,” he whispers, his hands sliding my shirt. He trails kisses up my stomach until he reaches between my breasts.

  I cannot get my brain to connect with my mouth, nothing but moans escape my mouth as he continues to lick and kiss his away over my breasts, before he rips my bra straight down the middle.

  “I liked that one, you know,” My head rolls side to side as his mouth closes over my nipple, his tongue licking over it repetitively.

  “I’ll buy you a new one,” he growls, his legs spreading mine and grinding his hard length against my core.

  His hands find the tights, and he pulls them off in one motion, diving straight back down on top of me. Our kisses once again become a frenzy; a combination of teeth, tongue, and lips meeting amongst the urgency to fuck. I reach down to his jeans and unzip him until Dylan’s full length is in my hand, I waste no time kicking his jeans further down and pulling him down on top of me, settling his length so close to my entrance all it would take is a shift of the hips before he would slide inside of me.

  “God, I love you,” Dylan growls before taking his cock in his hand and guiding it into me with extreme slowness, making me feel every delicious inch.

  “I . . . love . . . you . . . more,” I utter, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice and utterly failing.

  My hips start sliding up and down his length, needing him to move faster, his echoing groan spurring me on. It’s not long before he starts to pound into me, his arm coming around to hold my ass and leg up around his waist, fucking me harder and harder the louder I yell. His other hand moves around to reach down to my clit, stroking it in tandem with his thrusts. The higher he pulls my hips, the louder I moan, his cock reaching the perfect
spot to make my body erupt in fireworks.

  “Babe, I’m going to come!” I scream just before I’m pushed over the edge, tightening around him. I feel Dylan thrust faster and faster, his hips pumping erratically as he rides the wave to his orgasm. Dylan freezes on top of me, his moans echoing through the clearing. The feeling of his cum releasing inside of me has me feeling such intense pleasure that my eyes roll into my head, my body doing nothing but revelling in the sensations.

  I tilt my head towards Dylan’s as he still lays joined to me, opening our mating bond once again and, allowing the pleasure and love to fly down our bond and into him, hoping that it conveys how I feel about him. His eyes sparkle under the moonlight, his lips coming down to brush against mine, as he releases his bond. The intense feeling of pure devotion, love, and a plethora of other emotions hit me square in the chest, stealing my breath.

  “So, how about that dessert, now?” Dylan asks, that one-dimple grin surfacing once again.

  “Any new reports from the smaller packs out west?” I ask the room of Alphas and Betas.

  “None, which is really fucking frustrating. Last, we heard, there had been the occasional missing wolf from west of the Mississippi, but no outright attacks. The east side of the Mississippi is a completely different story, just from the few calls we’ve made, I found out about five motherfucking different attacks in the last four months. All in different states, all different times, and yet, the same mode of attack. They break through at the weak spot, take on a small number of wolves and usually try to leave with at least one of them. How the fuck has no one put any of this together, yet?” Wade’s voice is growing in volume with every statement, the anger and frustration evidently getting to my short-fused Mate as he slams his fist into the wooden table in Dylan’s study.

  “That’s probably why no one has put it together yet, they are only taking one or two pack members, generally once a month, and states away from each other. Each of these Packs must just be putting it down to a rouge attack, a one off, and so it’s not getting reported. Literally, the only reason we know to look for these things is because of Ava. Without her knowledge of this, no doubt we would have put it down to the same thing,” Marco voices from his seated position in the high-back leather reading chair in the corner of the room. I’ve noticed that Marco is forever the voice of reason and people stop and listen to him for that exact purpose.