Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6)

by Zoe Winters

  Sydney’s eyes glowed red and her fangs descended. She growled low in her throat. It was a menacing sound Noah never thought he would hear from her. She spun on one of her captors, hauled back, and landed a hard punch to his jaw. He reeled back.

  Sydney stared at her fist, stunned. “I-I don’t know where that came from.”

  The wolf she’d punched advanced on her and growled.

  That was Noah’s cue. He shifted and pounced on top of the guy. The other wolf shifted as he got thrown to the ground and the two of them rolled around on the floor, snapping and snarling, blood flying out from the fight until the other wolf let out a horrible wail and became very still.

  Noah was about to shift back to normal when Shira shifted and jumped on him. It wasn’t the fight he’d asked for or the fight he wanted, but it was the one he had. She was tougher than the male he’d just killed, and he knew without doubt as they fought, that she’d been strong enough to lead this pack. But she wasn’t strong enough to beat Noah.

  His fangs dug into her as she shifted back, and he let go. She scrambled away, clutching at her throat, but it was obvious from the look in her eyes that she knew it was too late for her.

  Noah shifted back and wiped the blood off his mouth. “You should have let us be on our way without the theatrics. It didn’t have to go this way. I didn’t want it to.”

  The light left her eyes, and she stared sightlessly up from the floor.

  The metal that had raged through the speakers, stopped, and the room fell quiet. The wolves that had been in the lounge, filed into the lobby. Noah moved in front of Sydney.

  One by one, they dropped to one knee and bared their throats.

  “We’re going back to our room,” Noah said, trying to ignore that about forty wolves had just pledged their fealty to him. No matter what his instincts said, he couldn’t lead a pack. He barely remembered how pack dynamics worked. He had some deep issues from being in that place. He’d only abuse those in his care. If he had a pack, he wanted to be like his dad. He didn’t want it like this. And he had to get back home so his family knew he was alive.

  His parents would have had a memorial in honor of what would have been his coming-of-age birth moon. Tonight. They were mourning tonight, and he had a pack wanting him to lead them. It was too messed up.

  One of the wolves rose and moved hesitantly toward him. “Um… sir, we have a much nicer room for the alpha to stay in. That room you’ve been in isn’t good enough for…”

  Noah held back a growl as the wolf moved closer to Sydney than he was comfortable with after what almost just happened. What had almost just happened? He still wasn’t sure what Shira’s plan had been, but whatever it was had proven incredibly foolish. Perhaps she’d planned to get rid of Sydney and then execute the wolves who’d taken her, pretending they’d acted alone and not on her orders.

  The other wolf took a couple of steps back.

  “We aren’t staying. We’re leaving as soon as the sun is down and we can arrange transport.”

  “We’ll go with you,” another wolf said. They were getting braver.

  “Why? I don’t want a pack.” That was a lie. “I was only protecting my mate.” The mate I haven’t marked yet. He wasn’t even a fit mate. If he was, he would have done what was necessary to protect her first, before anything else, rather than treating her like they were a couple of humans on a date trying to see if maybe the other might be The One.

  He’d known Sydney was the one. She knew it, too. Giving her a few days to make it seem as if fate hadn’t already decided for them only put her at risk—particularly when she couldn’t hold her own with anyone stronger than another frail human female. Although… she’d just thrown a pretty harsh right hook, most likely courtesy of his blood. And that was just from feeding once.

  “S-sir, we need a leader. We’re willing to go with you, wherever you want. Anyone else here leading will be weaker than Shira. And while she was strong, our pack isn’t as secure as it could be. It will be less so if we follow someone else. It’ll be safer for you and your mate to travel with a pack.”

  What was the likelihood they’d willingly help him and Sydney get out of here if he rejected them? Probably not high. After all, if he flat out said no, whether they wanted to follow him or not, they could collectively turn on him and take the trash out.

  He sighed. “Honestly, who here wants to come with us and establish a pack farther north near my family? Show of hands?” Maybe if he framed it that way, more would hesitate, and they’d get off this kick. Shira wasn’t even cold yet.

  One by one hands raised until all were in the air, but the last few were more fear than truly wanting to go.

  “Fine. Get what we need together and we’ll go at sunset. What do you have for transportation?”

  “Motorcycles,” one of them said.

  Noah quickly covered his reaction. He couldn’t even drive a car. Where would he have learned? He’d thought if they had cars, one of them could act as his and Sydney’s driver and no one had to know just how cut off from the whole world he’d been. They were going to figure out he was a fraud before they got out of the gate. And that would put Sydney at risk.

  “O-only… sir… if we could just wait until after the moon begins to wane. We can’t all travel in human form under the full moon. M-most of us can’t. We need to wait until we have better control. And we’ll better be able to prepare for the journey.”

  And they’d be much less likely to rip Noah and Sydney apart when they realized their new savior wasn’t so fit for leadership after all. They’d been far better off with Shira.

  Noah looked around at the assembled, anxious wolves. “We’ll leave on the first night of the waning moon at sunset. Anyone who doesn’t want to be a part of my pack can stay behind. There will be no retaliation for anyone who chooses to stay.” He had two nights to figure out how to ride a motorcycle and even less time to mark Sydney. Two nights was plenty of time for them to all defect, anyway.

  Chapter Seven

  Sydney tensed as Noah guided her back to their room. Surely he knew she hadn’t just walked out of there under her own steam. And if there was any doubt, the shattered door was proof enough there had been a struggle.

  One of the other wolves lurked out in the hallway. “Umm, sir? About that other room…”

  Noah growled in response, but took Sydney and followed the wolf up a couple of flights of stairs to a large suite. The wolf quickly ducked out and Noah deadbolted the door and put a chair under it.

  Sydney searched the suite, looking for a place she’d feel safe for the day. The other room had been better from her perspective with no way any sunlight could get in through solid wall and brick.

  She settled on the bathroom. She could take the comforter and pillows off one of the beds and put it in the giant tub. The bathroom was enormous with no windows.

  Noah stood back and watched as she made what could only be described as a nest for herself in the bathtub. He didn’t say anything. Was he angry?

  “Noah, I-I’m sorry about all that out there.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “What do you have to be sorry for?”

  “Well, I mean… if I hadn’t hit that guy… I escalated things, but I just… I got so angry. I’ve never been that angry before, I’m not sure why…”

  “It was my blood. You’ve never drank from a werewolf before, have you?”

  She shook her head. “Therians don’t usually line up to volunteer as blood dolls for us, and it wasn’t as if I could do anything to change that.”

  Although… when she’d hit the guy, her hand hadn’t even hurt. And she’d definitely done damage. There was no way she should have been able to do that. She looked up to find Noah still watching her closely.

  “I don’t think you’re going to stay very weak for long,” Noah said. “Earlier, you healed fast, even old scars. Then you hit that wolf. And that’s just from feeding one time. Once I’ve marked you, and you’ve had even more… over time I thi
nk you’ll be strong like a normal vampire.”

  A normal vampire.

  Sydney could barely dare to dream that she had the smallest hope of being normal. She’d lived so long having to be under someone’s protective wing that the idea of ever being able to hold her own with anyone seemed as unlikely as unicorns.

  “Sydney…”

  “Yeah?” The way he looked at her, all wild intensity and purpose, made her glad she wasn’t going to be an entirely helpless damsel for long. It wasn’t that she feared him. He was Noah. But still.

  “I need to mark you.”

  “You said…”

  She’d thought as long as she didn’t escalate things to sex between them, a feat in and of itself for her when it came to feeding, that there would be time to get used to the idea. Not that she didn’t want to be with him. It was just that… when she’d run away from home, she hadn’t realized she was running straight into the arms of her future werewolf mate. Even if it sounded like a good idea, a lot had happened in a short time, and she still worried he might be wrong. Surely being locked up like that for so long had skewed his sense of… well, everything. They hadn’t talked about it, but she could see how he reacted around others. Slight shifts in body language that nobody else paid attention to because they had other worries to deal with than decoding the body language of the stranger among them.

  But Sydney remembered Noah from when they were kids. He hadn’t been quiet like this. He hadn’t been closed off, wanting to be alone all the time. He’d been the center of attention, charismatic, gregarious. That place had changed him. She still wanted him, but what if some day he realized that he didn’t want her? That she’d only been a bit of comfort for when nothing else around him had smelled like home.

  If he later discovered someone else was his true mate… she’d claw the bitch’s eyes out. Whoa. Yeah, werewolf blood. Damn. How did Noah control this? It was as if she now had her own wolf that had grafted onto her. A little angry furry Sydney to contend with. All the impotent rage that had built within her over years of powerlessness. The anger she’d had to tamp down because she wasn’t strong enough to back it up with an arsenal of bad ass. Someone else always had to fight her battles.

  Now that she thought about it… she wasn’t sorry at all for hitting that guy. He’d had it coming. She only regretted that it had set up a situation it didn’t seem Noah wanted. Without meaning to, she’d handed him a huge level of responsibility, and maybe he just wanted to go back home and live with his pack and try to find some way to recover from twenty years in that terrible glass cube.

  She wouldn’t have made it twenty days without losing her mind. Noah was strong in more ways than he realized.

  “Sydney?”

  “Yeah?” She’d kind of just spaced out there and wondered how long she’d been having an internal monologue, grateful wolves couldn’t read minds like vampires could. Or most vampires, anyway.

  “Look, I know what I said, but if I had marked you when we first got here you might have been safer. And with the pack now, if I don’t mark you, you definitely won’t be safe from the women. They’ll all fight to be alpha bitch.”

  Sydney was doubtful. Wolves tended to respect the marks of other wolves, but it wasn’t as if they had to, particularly when a stranger was among a pack that wasn’t his. Under ordinary circumstances it was respected, but if the pack’s alpha had ordered an execution, it wouldn’t have kept her safe. Noah had to know that.

  Even among vampires, while a vampire physically couldn’t feed on a claimed mate because of the mystical protection it placed upon the other, it didn’t mean a vampire wouldn’t just separate the human’s head from his or her body if they felt like it.

  Sydney’s eyes went to Noah’s throat. She licked her lips at the pounding, surging warm blood that hummed just beneath the surface of his skin. In the years that followed, she would likely rewind to this day and try to pick apart her motivations to figure out why exactly she’d done what she did next, but the only answer that would likely ever come to her was… instinct.

  Without thinking, she launched herself at him and sank her fangs into his throat. She took a couple of pulls of his blood, then pricked her own tongue with her fang and quickly, before his wound could close, mixed their blood.

  She pulled back and felt the fierce red glow in her eyes, and she said: “Mine.”

  The second the word was out of her mouth, Noah’s eyes glowed yellow and he growled at her. Growled. At her. She would have punched him in the jaw, except she wasn’t fast enough. He tackled her, and before she could think, his fangs were in her throat.

  He growled again, and she felt the control he was trying to gain. That growl was angry. It wasn’t excited or even possessive. It was rage, and she was possibly about two seconds from getting her throat ripped out.

  “Noah,” she said quietly.

  His tongue trailed over her neck, then he pulled back, his eyes glowing golden. “Mine,” he snarled, still half-angry.

  Well. Okay then. At least he’d gotten control of himself and hadn’t ripped her throat out. But the confrontation wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

  He struggled to his feet and glared at her for a second, then he went outside on the balcony. Sydney glanced at the clock. It was about an hour until the sun came up, but she wasn’t even tired yet. Normally she’d already be asleep, the soon-approaching sun already draining her well before it could peak over the horizon and start its ascent into the sky. A few vampires out there were so strong that they could, from a sheltered and shaded place, watch the first red hints of dawn climb into the sky before falling dead for the day. Sydney had always believed she’d never be that strong, that the only sunrise she’d ever see was a manufactured or pre-recorded one playing on a screen. Now she had her doubts.

  This had been the longest night of her life, and she was very aware of how close it had been to being her last. Twice. It hurt that the biggest threat to her that second time had been the man who’d claimed she was his true mate. What did he know about true mates after being locked up like that? He hadn’t even been raised by wolves properly.

  She didn’t follow him outside. She didn’t even want to see him right now. For better or worse they were tied together. Instead, she went to the bathroom. She wasn’t sure how long she’d manage to stay awake, but the clock was ticking down and if she had any hope of making it until sunset, she had to be in the safety of the bathroom when she fell dead for the day.

  Sydney wasn’t even sure she’d be safe like that, so vulnerable with Noah right there. She resented that he was her only protection, and he was behaving like some rabid animal she couldn’t trust. She ran her fingers over the mark he’d left on her throat as she looked at it in the mirror. She could see the vampiric demon rippling under the surface in her reflection. The image had never been this strong before. It had been the tiniest ghost of a thing before when she’d looked in a mirror, nothing like her dad’s reflection which was strong and looked to be more demon than human half the time.

  She could already see the vampire side of her growing stronger. If she’d somehow fed from Noah before they’d escaped the city, she had a feeling the barrier would have recognized her as a preternatural and wouldn’t have let her pass.

  The place where Noah had bitten her glowed in the mirror. He’d marked her as his mate. There was no doubt about that. So she should be safe when she went to sleep. Right? The rage rose up again, and she smashed the mirror. She watched as her bleeding hand healed before her eyes. Yes, she was definitely different now.

  The bathroom door flew open as Noah raced inside. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  “You almost ripped my throat out, and now you’re asking if I’m okay? I’m fine. Please leave me alone.” She climbed into the tub and propped up all her pillows. “And shut that door when you leave. We can’t let any sunlight in.”

  Noah shut the bathroom door and sat on the closed toilet lid. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying r
ight here until you rise for the night.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. When was the last time you ate something? You need to hunt.”

  Something flickered over his face, and then she realized… he hadn’t hunted anything since he was a pup. And back then he’d just been learning. Literally everything had to be so hard for him right now. What else had he not experienced that most others his age would have?

  “I’ll be fine. I’m sure I can get one of my new underlings to bring me something.” He crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest.

  Several minutes passed in silence, and then he said, “Sydney, why would you do that? A pack just surrendered to me, and you claimed me! In the first place, you’re a vampire. No wolf pack is going to accept a vampire as the alpha. And in the second place, you might be stronger now than you started out, but you aren’t strong enough to hold a pack, and if it looks like you control me, they won’t accept me, either. Not that I care, but it’s better that they want to follow us than kill us. Don’t you think?”

  This may have been more words than he’d ever strung together at one time since they’d been reunited.

  “And you marked me back,” Sydney said. “So it’s okay. Your mark took. And I know my claim did.”

  He put his head in his hands, then looked up. “Again, Sydney, why? Why would you claim me? Do you know how close I came to ripping your throat out before I marked you? The wolf saw that as a challenge. Why would you do that? You’ve been around wolves enough to know better. Or maybe it’s been so long you’ve forgotten.”

  Sydney wasn’t sure why she’d done it. It had been instinct. It wasn’t like she’d had a pro/con list or some grand plan, but reasons that made sense began to crystallize in her mind now that everything had settled. She wasn’t entirely sure that any of these reasons were why she’d done it, since she hadn’t planned it, but she could throw it out there and see if any of it made sense to Noah—if any of it could smooth this out.