Bad Moon Rising (The Crown's Wolves)

by Zoe Forward

  His hands floated toward her breasts to gently caress the outside edge of each globe. On one breast, he gently applied friction to a nipple. Her head fell back as she gasped.

  He said, “You’re so beautiful, Nova.”

  She sensed hesitancy in his tone, unsure of its source.

  She stiffened, sat up, and got off him to slide out of her thong. She straddled his thighs again and took his face in her hands to make eye contact and hover above him. “If you want to stop, I’ll die, but I can handle it. Do you want to stop?”

  Eyes searching hers, he didn’t move at first. He just stared at her as she waited breathlessly for him to make a decision.

  His eyes closed and head tilted to one side.

  Say yes. Please.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered. The light press of his nose against her cheek caused her to inhale sharply. His lips kissed along her jaw to her neck. He rolled her to her back. Slowly, almost leisurely, he took his time kissing, his mouth moving with hers. He reached down to slide off his briefs. The lower half of his body moved against her, playing near her entrance but not giving her what she wanted.

  A rock of his hips shot sensation through her, causing her legs to fall wider to gather all the pleasure he might give while not giving her enough.

  His tongue swept into her mouth as he possessively gripped her jaw with his hand, angling so his tongue could dive deeper in sync with his length sliding along her core.

  She moaned into his mouth and reached to get more.

  …

  Perfect.

  She was so perfect.

  Before she could question what he was doing, Roman kissed his way down her abdomen to her inner thighs. He brought her legs up and over his shoulders.

  Her head fell back on the mattress. “Shit, you’re going to torture me, aren’t you?”

  He didn’t answer. He concentrated on teasing and alternating between his tongue and kisses up her thigh. He wanted to hear her come again. With his light kisses as he neared her core, her pelvis tilted up. Her breasts rose and fell rapidly.

  When he touched his lips to the area above her core, she gasped and bucked upward. “I’m not going to survive this. Oh, God, Roman.”

  He slid his hand up her belly to touch a breast and took a nipple between his fingers. As he pressed his tongue against her, he drew hard on her nipple.

  “Oh fuck…” Her back arched off the bed.

  He twisted her nipple, loving that he could be slightly rough with her, and it seemed to turn her on. And she’s all mine.

  Dangerous thought. Not going there.

  He rolled his tongue over her while keeping pressure on her nipple. Her legs spread wide and then squeezed his head. Based on the gasps and moans from her, she was lost to the impending orgasm.

  “Oh my freaking God. Don’t stop. Right there. This is so good.” She thrashed against him.

  Instead of finishing her, he pulled away.

  “No…no, no, no. Not yet. I need this. Roman, please.”

  “I want to be inside you.” He poised at her entrance.

  “You worried about birth control? I have no clue if I’m on anything. It’d be a miracle for me to live long enough to…”

  He stopped her with a kiss. “You’re going to live. Miracles are real. But you can’t get pregnant tonight. For lycans it only happens when you go into heat, which you’re not.”

  She smiled softly. “Feels like you’re saying you want a baby someday.”

  “Already said I wanted everything I’ve never wanted before. But I don’t have a condom. Flynn does, but there’s no way I’m asking him.”

  “Sounds like we don’t think we need to stress about a condom unless…are there diseases? Again, I don’t know.”

  “No diseases.” He leaned forward and brought his mouth to hers once more. “I’m sorry if this is your first time.” He slowly rocked inside her. No resistance. Although relieved he wouldn’t hurt her, this was still a first for her. He’d make it the best first possible for both of them.

  After several slow rocks, he was almost halfway there. She nibbled on her lower lip.

  “Doing okay?” He took her hands in his and linked fingers. He whispered, “There’s more.”

  “More?” She nodded. “Yes, please.”

  He thrust all the way in, knowing she could handle it.

  “Wow.” Her voice was heavy with emotion. “Give me a sec.” Then her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled up at him. She pinched his nipple hard.

  He groaned, swearing he could feel it all the way down to his balls. “What was that for?”

  “You liked it.”

  He grunted.

  “Give me the more part of this. Show me the real Roman.”

  And that was his undoing.

  He gripped her ass and pulsed into her. “You feel so amazing, but I’m trying to avoid…there’s biting.”

  “This is so good. But do it. Whatever it is. Do it. I want everything.”

  He pumped harder, his stomach bottoming out as pleasure began to erupt around him. Instinct rose strong and fierce as he felt his teeth throb and tingle. Not doing it.

  Doing it. “Nova, tresoro, I’m going to—”

  A feral scream erupted from her as she began to contract around him.

  With her core clenching, he lost the ability to control, to think, to be rational. He arched over her and bit into her shoulder as his orgasm ripped through him.

  Mind-shattering pleasure shattered him.

  He hovered over her, motionless. Had it ever been this good? When he met her blissed out gaze, he had his answer.

  No.

  It would never be like this with anyone else

  The moment she kissed him softly, he confirmed the deadly thought rattling around in his head since the moment he met her. Not only was he completely infatuated with her, but also he knew for certain he’d never be the same without her.

  He’d do anything to protect her. Highest on that list was never doing this again. Her magic, although strong, already waned. He could feel the curse gearing up to push him into compliance. He couldn’t allow them anything more than this one moment. No love. No bonding. This was the only option. To keep her safe.

  He gently kissed her and then pushed up and off the bed. Rapidly, he dressed, shoving the compulsion to follow the monarch’s orders into the back of his mind.

  “You’re leaving?” Her eyebrows pinched together with a pained expression. “Now?”

  “Sorry,” he managed to rasp out. “Curse…hurts.” His throat felt thick as he stared at her from the door, and his vision blurred as he stared at everything he wished he could have but wasn’t in the cards for him.

  His breath caught as a pulverizing burn shot up his arm to his stomach with the reverberation of “do it” echoing inside his head.

  I won’t hurt her.

  He pushed off the doorframe and stumbled out of the room to find Flynn and beg he be locked up for the night. Somewhere…anywhere he couldn’t escape to get to her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Copenhagen in December was cold as bitter hell during an ice age. At least in December, the sun was up at midday, which helped. Roman yanked his coat collar up to ward off the chill coming off the water. Snow swirled in the air around them as he strode next to Nova toward the modern apartment building in which Peter Kenaz resided. After a lengthy discussion this morning of how to travel with minimum exposure risk for Nova, all concluded his plane remained the safest bet. The flight plan could be tracked. The plane’s movement monitored, but Flynn could control more public cameras—on buildings, traffic lights, and stores—if he used the plane as a base of operations.

  They told Gerard they were chasing their target as an excuse for the deviation to Denmark. The rental car Flynn arranged through a du
mmy account couldn’t be traced.

  Roman’s stomach was a mass of hard knots. Last night had been a beginning and an end. He couldn’t dwell on regrets over what-ifs. His life wasn’t his own. The only option for him was to complete a mission one way or another. Doing so this time involved finding the truth. He’d convince them she was innocent and then get her far away from him, out of his life and somewhere safe from all of this.

  He didn’t know if he could handle when they arrived at the endgame, especially if it pushed him to finish the job, whether that meant execute her or let her go free when he proved her innocent. The familiar burn of the curse powered up his arm, but its bite stung more than ever before.

  “I’m glad Evie lent me this outfit. I love the coat.” Nova snuggled into the furry hood of the downy jacket. Her face peeked out as if making sure he’d heard her. Adorable.

  He tried to smile and reassure her, but his brain wobbled from vertigo to the point he had to throw out a hand to grab the streetlamp they passed. The icy cold of the metal hurt his hand through his thin gloves.

  He tried to think through the pain but could taste blood in his mouth. Yet, he didn’t know if it was blood from him biting something or simply ruptured blood vessels. A quick check found no self-induced bite of his own tongue or lip. Vessels might be exploding elsewhere inside him as part of the curse’s punishment. Sure, he’d heal, but would it be fast enough? The damage the curse slowly inflicted would slow him, especially if he bled internally. His system needed time to regenerate blood cells.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Nothing. Let’s get this over with.”

  “I can try to use magic again if you—”

  “Leave it,” he said. “I’m handling it.”

  She pressed her lips into a fine line but didn’t push further.

  Time ticked slowly in a haze until they were face-to-face with Peter Kenaz. He barely remembered entering the apartment building. Peter’s entire face flushed and then lost color as he stood in the doorway.

  That was a clear yes on Peter recognizing Nova. Without a word, he opened the door and waved them inside. The minimalist decor had no clutter and lacked personality.

  He and Nova sat on his sofa as, in clipped English, Peter said, “You said you would be back. I didn’t think it would be this soon. Nor did you say you’d bring company when you returned.”

  They each sat across from him on separate modern stuffed chairs. Roman’s chair lacked comfort to the point its angular edges dug into his thighs. Sitting was better than moving, though. It kept the vertigo at bay.

  “Do you know me?” Nova threw back her hood.

  “You paid me a lot to hold onto this flash drive and give it to you when you showed up. Said it might be months, maybe a year before you came back.” Peter held out a small red flash drive, which she took. He tented his hands in front of his face. “You seem different than the person who was here before. Less… I’m trying to put my finger on it. Less detached from life.”

  “Did I tell you I planned to use PKC-zeta on myself?”

  “No.” Peter’s mouth slackened. “It’s still experimental in that we don’t know how to calibrate the dose. Too much and it’ll wipe… How much do you remember since you took it?”

  “I can’t remember a single thing about myself. Do you know anything about me?”

  Peter stood abruptly and looked around as if expecting ghosts to attack him from the walls. “I want you to leave. Don’t come back. I fulfilled my part of the deal. I can’t help you.”

  “Are you sure you remember nothing?” Nova stood.

  “Please, leave,” he said, although didn’t raise his voice. Instead, his face remained tight and pale. “Anyone who’d purposefully use that drug and leave themselves a zip drive knows something that will get me killed for being associated.

  Smart man.

  Nova held out her hand. Peter took it to shake with her. She jerked away and backed up a step as if he’d given her an electric shock. She stared at her hand.

  Roman asked in his smooth tone, calling forth the voice to force compliance, “Tell me exactly what she said to you when here last time.”

  Peter’s shoulders visibly relaxed. “You said you would return and to give you the flash drive. Then you left.”

  “Did she pay you?”

  “I think so,” Peter said. “Yes. There’s money in my account. But I can’t remember.”

  Shit. She must’ve voice-coerced him into forgetting the last time she was here. At least, in her last life, she remembered how to do this skill inherent to their species. This was a dead-end, but at least they had the flash drive. He said, “Forget we were here, Peter. Forget us entirely.”

  Roman took Nova’s arm, led her up and out of the apartment. “Pull up your hood and keep your face down.”

  “Why didn’t you ask him more?”

  “You wiped his memories. Let’s go see if we can open the drive.”

  “How do I go about wiping a person’s memories?” she asked.

  “We don’t have time to discuss this right now.” He stumbled against the side of the apartment building’s entryway, lightheaded.

  She caught his arm. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “You have to tell me what’s going on. Otherwise I can’t help you.”

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  …

  An hour later, on the plane, Flynn put the flash drive into the side of a laptop, one he said wasn’t his main computer but a backup. He muttered something about not screwing up his good computer.

  “It’s not emitting any signals. But the drive is encrypted with a password.” Flynn asked, “You wouldn’t by any chance remember the password, would you?”

  “Try Nova or amnesia,” she said, distractedly. Roman rested a few seats away, head tossed back, faking sleep. Whatever he hid, she bet had to do with him not following orders to kill her. Her gut said whatever was going on inside him couldn’t continue forever. The curse was going to kill him. Seemed they had a new clock ticking down their time to figure things out.

  Flynn shook his head. He made a few more attempts and cursed. “Suggestions?”

  “Try Roman,” she said.

  “I’ll be damned. We’re in.” A moment later, he announced, “There’s one file. An mp4.”

  “Let me see,” Roman said as he rose and settled next to her. Her thigh tingled where it touched his, and his warmth soothed her. She wanted to touch him everywhere to assess his level of damage. Maybe she should be reassured she couldn’t see his future death. When she’d touched Peter, she’d seen him in a hospital, tubes going into his body. He’d been frail and failing until he died.

  Why couldn’t she see Roman’s death or Flynn’s? Or Evie’s, for that matter. Did they not die? Maybe she couldn’t read lycans.

  Roman said, “Play the file.”

  Nova watched herself appear on screen. Surreal to see someone who looked exactly like her and to accept it was herself. She had her hair secured into a tight ponytail and wore a black turtleneck with no jewelry.

  The Nova on screen said, “Listen closely. You get one chance to hear this. At this point, I know you want answers, but I can only say so much for fear someone might find your flash drive before you. Peter knows nothing more. Forget him. He was a means to an end. To the one who helped get you here, thank you. I know it’s been confusing, but you were chosen because of who you are. The fact you’re here means I chose wisely. All of you must to stick together. Did I do the things they say? Probably. Did I want to? No. They made me. I don’t remember doing them. Nova, it’s important you don’t try to remember your past. It’s imperative your mind remain blank. I can imagine how scary that is. The world needs for you to not remember. I took the drug on purpose. It was a last resort…the only way. I need
for you to be okay with not getting your memory back and starting a new life. But you must figure out why I had to erase my memories…our past. The lives of many depend on it. How you find out is to figure out what happened to the one of you who’s missing. And, Nova…” She leaned forward. Her forehead crinkled. “Gloves help. Can’t say it’s the most useful of talents, but sometimes it is.” She paused for a few seconds of silence. “This file will self-destruct as soon as it’s done playing.”

  The screen wobbled and a male voice mumbled, “Turning it off now.”

  All three of them sat in silence until Roman said, “Play it again.”

  “It won’t play.” Flynn pulled the laptop close and typed rapidly. “It’s corrupted. The file’s gone. I can’t get it back.” He typed wildly. “Damn it.”

  Roman leaned back and released a frustrated sigh. He covered his face with a palm and then ran the hand over across his forehead slowly.

  “She’s talking about Ky, isn’t she? The one who’s missing?” Flynn said. “Or maybe it’s Shane because how would she know when she recorded this that Ky would go missing unless she knew where he was going and what he was doing? Or someone helping her had precognition…like… Like Shane got sometimes.”

  “Who recorded it?” Roman asked. “That wasn’t Ky’s voice. I think it might’ve been…”

  “It’s simply inconceivable.” Flynn’s voice cracked on the last word. “It can’t be.”

  “Who was on the other side of the camera? Do you think I had someone in my life?” After a swallow and tug of air to inflate her lungs, she clasped Roman’s hand so hard, her knuckles turned white. “Do you think…could there be someone I was involved with?”

  Roman let go of her hand to lean forward with his elbows on his knees and cradled his head. He thrust both hands into his hair. “I don’t know.” He released his hair and stared around her to look at Flynn. “How could she have Shane’s lighter? It’s simply not possible unless…” His voice cracked. “He survived. That sounded like him.” Roman reached across her lap and gripped his brother’s forearm. “If that was Shane for real, then he escaped it. He’s free of it. If he was alive and not free of it, he’d have had to return when all of us last got recalled a few months ago.”