Dark: A Dark Paranormal Romance (Blood Moon, Texas Shifters Book 1)

by Kat Kinney

  “Well, we’re celebrating either way.” August held the door, ushering us inside. “Got a message from River, by the way. Said to tell you congratulations.”

  I looked away, not wanting to get into it with August on today of all days. He and River had always been close. But there was no excusing what our youngest brother had done. Not this time.

  The inside of Dark had been decorated with crepe paper, black and orange streamers, and a display of Halloween pumpkins and candles.

  “Someone cleans up good.” Cal clapped me on the shoulder. “Congrats. Who would have thought you’d be the first?”

  “How did—” I started.

  “You really think we’d miss this?” Brody said from behind me. “We’re family. ‘Bout time you got that through your head.”

  West elbowed in to add, “Dickbreath.”

  “You all suck.” I looked around. “Is Dallas here?”

  West shot August a look and got only a shrug in response.

  “He was in on the text, same as everyone else.”

  Cal rubbed his beard. “Give him a chance to come around. Think with everything that’s happened he may need a little time.”

  Which was a Cal answer if I’d ever heard one.

  Brody jerked his chin. “Got something for you.”

  I followed him over to the stairwell, so that we were standing under the red glow of the emergency exit sign.

  Brody dug in his pocket and pulled out a folded handkerchief. “These were Grandpa’s. He gave them to Dad the day he and Mom got married. Think he would have wanted them to go to you.”

  I gingerly unfolded the fabric, revealing a pair of antique gold cufflinks.

  “Wow. These are…” I lowered my head, knowing this was going to come out wrong. “You’re sure maybe these shouldn’t go to Cal? Or Dallas—”

  “Enough with that shit. When are you going to get it through your head the only one who thinks of you as an outsider in this family is you?”

  “It’s just I’m not sure he would have been too happy about today. Pretty sure you already knew he warned me once to stay away from Hayden.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Not exactly a blessing.”

  “It’s not what you think. You have to understand where Dad was coming from.” Brody paced a few feet and back. “I’m gonna tell you something, but you have to swear to keep it quiet. Dad doesn’t even know we know. Mom made me and Cal promise not to tell the others.”

  “I won’t start my marriage off on a lie.”

  Brody propped a hand on his service belt. “Not lie. But Hayden hates him, and with the way he made sure you two stayed apart, it’s hard to blame her. But you have to understand, it was never about her.”

  “Course not. We knew all along it was me he didn’t trust.”

  Brody lowered his voice. “Dad ever tell you about his mother?”

  “Snippets, here and there. She died young. Grandpa raised him and Uncle Will on his own.”

  “That’s pretty much the same story we got. Truth is, his mom was abducted as a teenager. A Feral picked her out one day at a park down in Oklahoma while she was eating ice cream with her friends. Picked her out. Like he was shopping for groceries. Stalked her for weeks. Then the next time the full moon struck, he stole her from her bedroom, and changed her. Real Brady Bunch scenario. She was sixteen.”

  I cursed under my breath.

  “Yeah.” Brody kicked at the door jamb. “You know how the rest goes. Dad was born, then Uncle Will. They had a sister, too. They moved around a lot. By the time any of the local Alphas got interested, Dad was nearly eight. They were up in Calgary at that point. Grandpa was the one they sent out to investigate. There was a firefight and the Feral tried to kill Dad and the others rather than allow them to be taken alive. Grandpa was lucky to save any of them.”

  “I never knew,” I started, chest suddenly tight. Why hadn’t Ben ever told me he, too, was adopted? Had he seen my failure to control my wolf as a reminder of his feral sire? Worried I would have preyed upon Hayden back when she was a teenager and worked at Dark?

  As if he could read what I was thinking, Brody shook his head. “Dad isn’t perfect. I get that it’s probably next to impossible not to make it personal, and maybe Cal’s the one to help you get your head straight on this, but you have to know he loves you. Just has his flawed view of the world, the same as the rest of us.”

  I said nothing.

  “Anyway,” said Brody, putting out a hand. “Dad would be proud things turned out the way they did. And so am I.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Things are gonna get hard in the next few months.” Brody’s eyes flicked across the room. “You heard what they found on the computers?”

  Hayden caught my eye from across the room. I gripped the door jamb, watching my wife, my mate, tip her head back and laugh, resolving then and there to protect her. No matter what it took.

  “Someone’s been running experiments. Working up a series of comprehensive genetic profiles.”

  “Pretty much. Only question is why. Do we have some rogue coven trying to find a way to screen our blood from the human population and hold it over the Council as blackmail? Or is this just another extremist group convinced they’ve found the holy grail of shifter blood they can somehow clean and drink from without neural degeneration?”

  “Let’s buy them all tanning beds and save ourselves the trouble of finding out.”

  Brody snorted. And then— “We’re going to all have to be in on this.”

  I nodded. “Any leads on London Blake?”

  “Nothing. She’s got a network of people keeping her hidden. Wouldn’t surprise me if the vamps are helping out on that front, too. We’re not out of this by a long shot.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Go back to your girl. Didn’t mean to keep you. And, E?”

  I met his eyes.

  “Congratulations.”

  Hayden turned at the sound of my voice. As she looped an arm around my neck, I gripped her waist, pausing to trace a single finger along the length of her daisy tattoo.

  “I love you,” I whispered, lifting her wrist to my lips to kiss her pulse point.

  A promise. That just like that daisy, she and I were forever. We might have taken a winding path, our way fraught with rocks and thorns, but we’d emerged into the sun. And I was never letting go.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Author Kat Kinney lives with her family and an extremely pampered guinea pig who does not like werewolves, vampires, or falcons. When she isn’t writing about things that bite and howl, she can be found knitting crazy socks and plotting out future books.

  Visit her at:

  Goodreads

  Twitter: @katkinneywrites