Wicked Moon (The Reluctant Werewolf Chronicles Book 2)

by Tori Centanni

  It was Michael’s turn to be taken aback. Whatever he’d been expecting, that hadn’t been it. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and glared at me with his gorgeous eyes beneath perfect lashes. Sometimes I really envied how pretty Michael was.

  “I know it can be hard for vampires to find discreet sources of blood—” I started.

  Michael sneered. Actually sneered. It surprised me so much I stopped speaking and my throat filled with ash.

  “I’m not his food, Charlotte. I’m his boyfriend. He loves me. And I love him.”

  “I know that.”

  “You don’t want to believe it, though. You’re jealous that Damien isn’t your boyfriend and so you have to come up with reasons why he doesn’t love me, either.”

  I stared, stunned. That was definitely not true. Damien was hot, sort of, but most vampires were. Something about them oozed sex appeal. Still, Damien and I hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot, given that I’d approached him hoping to be made a vampire and instead gotten bitten by his werewolf roommate. Damien and I were never going to happen, even if he wasn’t more interested in Michael. And being a werewolf meant I could never become a vampire anyway, so that door was closed.

  “You know, I get that you’re jealous because I’ll be a vampire and you can’t be, but that’s not my fault. If you hadn’t been so stubborn and forceful, you wouldn’t be stuck as a werewolf.”

  He sneered the word ‘werewolf’ with the same amount of disgust and loathing I used to use myself. But for some reason, coming from Michael, it hurt a lot more. A lump formed in my throat, and I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t form words to respond.

  After a beat, Michael said, “I have to go.”

  He tossed the book at me. Gently, or at least gently enough that I could catch it, but he could have just handed it over. He stomped off down the sidewalk. I headed up the porch steps, pausing at the door to take a breath and will my heart to stop pounding. I didn’t need the werewolves inside asking questions, and they would sense a rapid-fire heartbeat.

  I ducked inside and slipped upstairs to put the book away (this time in a drawer).

  When I returned to the living room, conversation was still polite and stilted. Rayna and Owen asked about various wolves in our pack, and Raff asked about wolves in their pack whom he’d presumably met. All three of them sat straight backed at the edge of their seats, as if they might need to jump up any second.

  Raff shot me a questioning look as I took my seat, and I gave a slight shake of my head. I didn’t need give him more reasons to dislike Michael. The fact that he was dating a vampire was reason enough for Raff, and, as irritated as I was with my friend in that moment, I didn’t want to increase tensions between him and my roommate.

  “So, who’s missing, and when did they vanish?” I asked.

  Owen blinked at me like I’d asked him the color of his underwear. Rayna smiled.

  “You don’t pull any punches,” she said, amused.

  I was too tired for beating around the bush any longer, but I didn’t say so.

  “Her name is Tracy Miller,” Rayna said, ignoring the look of rebuke from Owen.

  Obviously he didn’t think they should share this information, but I couldn’t imagine why not. It wasn’t like we’d kidnapped the woman. Why not dispense with the silly formalities and let us help?

  “She’s a fairly new werewolf, bitten about six months ago. She’s in her early twenties and was pursuing a law degree until she almost ate her study group.”

  “Holy crap,” Raff said. “So her study group witnessed her transformation?”

  The supernatural community—vampires, werewolves, shifters, faeries, witches, etc.—didn’t agree on much, but everyone knew it was best if the mundane mortals of the world kept believing that magic and monsters were the stuff of fairy tales. Luckily, humans were remarkably good at explaining away the supernatural as tricks of their mind, misunderstandings, and overactive imaginations. Even photographs and video usually got debunked by “experts” in less than twenty-four hours. That didn’t mean a werewolf making the change in front of a room full of witnesses would be a good thing.

  Owen shook his head. “No one saw, thank goodness. She’d gone to the restroom when the pain started, and the study group thought the wolf scared her off.”

  Raff and I exchanged relieved looks.

  “She found us soon after, once she figured out what had happened,” Rayna said.

  “So she’s smart and resourceful,” I said.

  Rayna nodded.

  Figuring out you’re a werewolf after waking up naked in the dirt the morning after a full moon might not seem like rocket science, but thanks to the aforementioned tendency people have to write off the supernatural, it’s not always the conclusion reached. Plenty of new werewolves think they accidentally got way drunker than intended, were drugged, or were in some kind of accident. It can take a couple months’ worth of transformations for the person to accept the truth. Plus, she’d hunted down the local pack, and if they were anything like other wolf packs, it wouldn’t have been an easy feat. It’s not like they advertised.

  “When was she taken?” Raff asked.

  Rayna and Owen exchanged another long look, having a silent argument with their eyes. Finally, Rayna tore her gaze away.

  “She wasn’t taken,” Rayna said flatly. “She left.”

  My head swiveled to see Raff’s reaction even as my own mind whirled. Tracy was an adult. She was allowed to leave, wasn’t she? I studied Raff’s face for signs of outrage or surprise, but he only nodded as he absorbed this information like another mundane fact.

  “Okay,” he asked. “When did she leave?”

  “The night before the full moon,” Owen said stiffly. “She didn’t check in yesterday, but by the time we realized she wasn’t going to show, it was too late to do more than a cursory search. We began tracking her this morning after verifying no one saw her during the change.”

  “And you tracked her here?” Raff asked.

  “We tracked her to the train station in Portland and discovered she’d taken the train here. From the Amtrak Station in Seattle, we were able to track her to downtown, but she must have gotten into a vehicle,” Rayna said, balling her fists in frustration. “Given that she had to endure the change last night, we don’t think she got far.”

  An awkward silence descended over the room like a fog. I shifted uneasily in my seat. Raff shot me warning look. We’d known each other barely a month, and yet he knew me so well.

  Finally, I couldn’t resist any longer.

  “What difference does it make if she came to Seattle?” I asked.

  Raff pinched the bridge of his nose and turned away. Rayna’s eyes widened. Owen glared at me. I swallowed under the weight of it.

  “Maybe she wanted a change of pace; that’s all I’m saying.”

  “Tracy was a new wolf,” Rayna said, like it was obvious and I was stupid for not getting it. “She was not permitted to leave without our pack’s permission, especially not during a full moon.”

  The hair on my arms stood on end. Before I could argue, Raff stood. “It’s getting late. I’ll check with my pack and contacts to see if anyone saw a new wolf last night. In the meantime, I suggest we all get some rest.”

  It wasn’t late at all. It was barely nine o’clock, and most werewolves were nocturnal even in human form. But Rayna and Owen didn’t argue. They’d been traveling all day after being up all night as wolves and probably wanted to crash.

  Raff touched my shoulder, indicating that I should get up. Warmth radiated from his touch even as I stood and his hand fell away.

  Chapter 4

  I changed into fresh pajamas and went to bed. I was still sore and bone-weary from the night before. The full moon had a way of draining my proverbial batteries like nothing else. I should have passed out immediately.

  Except I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about how Michael was mad at me, and when I finally managed to push tho
se thoughts away, my mind flicked to Tracy, whoever she was, and why her wolf pack was hunting her down like a… well, dog.

  That kind of militant pack behavior, complete with rules and restrictions, had been the reason I’d avoided the Northern Washington Pack for so long. I didn’t want to be part of a club that was going to treat me like fresh meat for their grinder.

  As it turned out, I’d been wrong about the local pack. They were more progressive and less controlling than the stories I’d heard, but clearly the rumors still applied to other packs.

  After two hours of tossing and turning, I got out of bed. I opened my door quietly and was greeted with the sound of beastly snores coming from downstairs. I let out a breath, relieved that our guests weren’t awake, though why that mattered, I wasn’t sure. I guess it was just reassuring that they weren’t going through drawers or something.

  Raff’s door was shut. I knocked as gently as I could. The door opened as soon as I dropped my hand. Raff wore sweat pants and a tight blue t-shirt with a cartoon gray wolf on it. He had a strange affinity for wolf t-shirts, and like all of his collection, this was one was tight around his muscular arms and chest. He gestured for me to come inside and quietly shut the door.

  “What’s up?” he whispered.

  Werewolf hearing is powerful, and I doubted he wanted to wake Rayna and Owen.

  “Can’t sleep. You?” I whispered back.

  Raff’s bed was still made, because he was one of those weirdos who actually made his bed every morning. Pillows were propped against the headboard on the far side of the bed, and a laptop sat open on the other side.

  “I think Tracy is friends with Rob,” Raff said.

  He grabbed the computer and showed me a photo posted on social media. In it, two people I didn’t recognize stood outside a bar I’d never seen. They were dressed in light summer clothes, a tank top and t-shirt, so the photo was probably taken months ago. The woman—Tracy—had light brown hair and bright brown eyes. She was pretty. The guy—Rob, I supposed—was handsome enough with a hipster beard and a wide smile. I didn’t recognize him.

  “Who’s Rob?” I asked.

  “He’s one of ours,” Raff whispered. “Sporadic attendee at meetings. He was at the mandatory one last month.”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to faces in the crowd, and anyhow, I’d been sitting at the back with everyone turned away from me. I didn’t remember seeing Rob there, but I’d be hard pressed to pick most of those people out of a line-up.

  “So you think Tracy came to visit him? To spend the full moon together?” I whispered.

  “I do. They comment and like each other’s posts on Facebook, and there was one flirty exchange a few weeks back. Whatever their relationship, it’s a safe bet she’s with him right now. Hell, maybe she just wanted a friend for the shift.”

  That made sense to me. The transformation was painful and scary. Why not spend it with someone you trusted? And if they were romantically involved, all the more reason to want to spend it together.

  “If it’s that simple, why haven’t Sherlock and Watson down there found her yet?”

  Raff smiled and mouthed the word, “Luddites.”

  “They have cell phones,” I said.

  I’d seen Rayna searching for an outlet to plug her charger into earlier. Raff closed his laptop and set it back on the bed.

  “Maybe they don’t know Rob is one of us,” he said. “Or maybe they didn’t even think to check. Sometimes we—warriors, I mean—get so used to relying on our wolf senses, we forget to check the obvious things, like social media.”

  “Should we wake them up and tell them the good news?” I asked, making sure to infuse sarcasm into the last two words.

  Raff’s smile faded and he set the laptop down. “It can wait until morning. No sense ruining Tracy’s night.”

  I swallowed, my mouth dry. “What’s going to happen when they find her?”

  Raff shrugged, his back muscles twitching. He unplugged the computer and closed it, moving it to the dresser now that his web sleuthing was done for the night.

  “I guess they’ll take her back home.”

  “Even if she doesn’t want to go?” I asked.

  Raff shrugged. That was a yes.

  Disgust twisted inside of me. “And then what happens?”

  Raff met my eyes. His blue eyes were cold and a little bit sad.

  “I don’t know their pack policy, Charlie,” he said softly. “I assume she’ll be punished.”

  I opened my mouth, and he held up a hand to stop my rant before it started.

  “I doubt it will be anything major,” he said softly. “They’ll probably take her phone for a week and make her do chores or something. She’ll be okay.”

  My stomach churned. I felt sick at the thought of a woman being punished for not following a pack’s idiotic rules about where and when she was allowed to shift into a werewolf. Raff read the uneasiness in my expression, and his hand again clamped around my shoulder. It was steadying and comfortable, and I wondered when, exactly, I started to gravitate toward his touch.

  “What you have to understand is that wolf packs have rules for a reason,” Raff said.

  He meant it to be comforting, but it was the exact wrong thing to tell me. I pulled away from him, but he continued.

  “That reason is to keep their members safe.”

  “By hunting them down if they dare take a vacation?” My voice rose above a whisper, and I struggled to keep from screaming. “I’m sure she feels super safe.”

  I left Raff’s room, resisting the urge to storm out and slam my bedroom door, not wanting to wake the wolves sleeping downstairs.

  The next morning, I took a long, hot shower to soothe my aching muscles. The soreness would last for several days, though my ravenous appetite would wane back down to my normal level of “always hungry” today.

  I had been scheduled to work, but Dia had texted asking if I wanted to give up the shift yesterday and I’d agreed. As much as I needed the hours, it was too good an offer to pass up. It was rare someone wanted to take a shift, and the more time I had to recover from wolfing out, the better.

  I dressed in black leggings, a black skirt with shimmering blue splotches on the fabric, and a black long-sleeved t-shirt. The skirt was a new purchase made in an attempt to start rebuilding my wardrobe after the fire. It was probably more of a going-out-at-night type thing, but my skirt options were limited until my fashion budget dramatically improved. (Maybe I should have kept my shift.)

  The couch downstairs had been put back together, and the blankets and pillows had been neatly stacked on top of it. For a moment, I held out hope that Rayna and Owen were gone. Maybe we’d gotten super lucky and they’d left before Raff even had a chance to tell them Tracy’s likely whereabouts. Let them spend days on a wild goose chase while Tracy enjoyed her freedom.

  Sadly, they were at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Their cups were take-out cups from the place a few blocks down the hill. Raff was at the stove frying up sausage in a pan. The smell of cooking meat and frying onions, along with the yeasty smell of baking bread, made my stomach growl.

  “We brought you coffee,” Rayna said, nodding at a cup carrier on the counter with two cups still in it.

  “Thanks,” I said, trying to hide my surprise.

  Last night, they hadn’t struck me as the thoughtful type. I took one of the coffees and pulled creamer out of the fridge.

  “Did you sleep okay?” Raff asked, turning to glance in my direction, wooden spoon hanging in midair.

  The question seemed to contain all sorts of subtext I wasn’t awake enough to catch so I said that I had and, lacking anything better to do, sat down at the table.

  Raff made quick work of the cooking, turning the sausage into gravy and producing biscuits from the oven. He plated up heaping piles of biscuits and gravy, setting one down in front of each of us before taking a seat himself.

  The gravy was spicy with lots of peppe
r. It was delicious, and I said as much as I inhaled my portion. Rayna and Owen did the same.

  “You’re a good cook,” Owen said, setting his fork on a nearly empty plate.

  He stopped short of licking it clean.

  “My mom taught me a few things,” Raff said with a shrug. “So, what’s the plan today?”

  “We’ll check out this Rob Garrison, see if Tracy is with him,” Rayna said before wiping her mouth with a napkin.

  My heart sank. So Raff had told them. But then, of course he had. It was his job. He was acting as the pack’s host, and he was a warrior himself. He’d want the same help if he came looking for one of our wolves in their territory. But then, our pack didn’t drag people home against their will.

  At least, not as far as I knew.

  “I’m coming with you,” Raff said.

  His tone was light and casual, but his eyes were hard and his jaw set. He meant business.

  “That’s not necessary,” Owen said, firmly, as if it were a royal decree. “We appreciate your tip, but we can handle it from here.”

  Rayna nodded in agreement.

  “Robert is my pack mate,” Raff insisted. “I should be there to make sure things go smoothly.”

  He met Owen’s eyes, and they had a stare-off over the table. Tension filled the room.

  Finally, Owen acquiesced. “If you insist.”

  I stood and began collecting plates.

  “When do we leave?” I asked.

  Rayna blinked. Owen shook his head, as if to say, Not you, too.

  I expected Raff to protest as well, and I was ready to argue my point. Robert was my pack mate, too. (Sure, I couldn’t tell the guy from a random dude off the street, but all the same.)

  So I was stunned when Raff merely said, “Now’s good for me. The sooner the better, right?”

  Owen and Rayna shared another telepathic look before standing and grabbing their leather coats. “Now is fantastic.”

  Chapter 5

  The four of us made it all the way to the sidewalk before our tenuous truce hit its first snag. There was a twenty-minute argument—and I’m not exaggerating because I timed it—about whether or not to call Rob and give him a heads-up that we were coming.