Moonlight's Peril (Moonlight Series Book 1)

by Ashlynn Monroe

  The wind rustled the leaves overhead. The magnitude of her isolation hit her. No one would hear her scream if he attacked. This is how I die. Oh Lord, watch over me, over her. I—please. Her mind screamed the prayer with a desperation she’d never experienced before. There was nothing behind her but a long drop.

  “You’re a good mother,” Law said. “And a brave woman. I wish I could help you, but she’s not here. If you keep looking, you might find things you aren’t able to handle. You’re young. You can have more children. How old are you, thirty?”

  She gasped with horror over his insensitivity. “I’m thirty-five, not that it’s any of your business. I could have a hundred children, and none of them could take Chessa’s place, so fuck you.”

  Foster shrugged, which made her angrier. “Go on with your life before you lose it.”

  “Is that a threat?” she demanded, standing up.

  “If I wanted you dead, you’d have been dead a long time ago. I don’t want to see you hurt. There’s nothing for you at the end of this search but pain. Missing children’s stories seldom have a happy ending.”

  “You sound confident of that.” Bianca spat each syllable as an accusation. “If she’s dead, just tell me where I can find her body. Please, if you know anything tell me. I can’t live the rest of my life with this uncertainty. I won’t—I swear I won’t lead the police to you or your people.”

  “There are others that live in these woods. There are things about this town you can’t imagine.” He moved closer and she backed up. Rocks skittered over the edge. The compassion in his oddly beautiful eyes made her ache. Are those eyes the last thing I’ll see when he pushes me over the edge?

  She threw away caution as the reality of Chessa’s dwindling time flooded her mind. She took a step closer to him but braced herself for any attack. “I’ve lived in this area my whole life. I know everything there is to know about this town. You can’t scare me. More threats won’t stop me. Why don’t you just tell me what you know?” Bianca grabbed her pack and returned to the state’s side of the fence. Anger gave her foolish courage, and she came to stand toe to toe with Law. She was average height, but he towered over her. “Where is my daughter?”

  “Go home. Give up. Live your life.”

  “There’s no life for me without my child. She’s all I have.”

  Something rustled the brush to Bianca’s left. The intensity of the argument had her on edge, but she turned to the noise. She squinted, as if that would help her see better in the dim wood, and tried to peer into the greenery. The sound originated from an area so overgrown no sun reached the ground.

  Two glowing yellow eyes gazed out at Bianca from the darkness. She couldn’t stop her gasp as she took a step away from Foster. A soft growl rumbled out of the shadows, and the bushes shook. Law grabbed her hand, tugging. She scowled, unable to comprehend his action in her jumble of wild emotions.

  “Damn it. Run!” Foster demanded as he yanked so hard she almost lost her footing. She dropped her heavy pack, but he didn’t give her time to grab it as he ran. She helplessly jogged behind him. Maybe this is another nightmare. I’ve had too much coffee and too little sleep. But his firm grip was solid. The warmth of Law's hand felt insanely safe. Terror kept her moving.

  Bianca turned to look behind them. “Oomph.” The sound exploded from her as she crashed into Law’s back. It took her a moment to feel the tension in his body. Cautious, she peeked around him and saw a creature blocking their path. It was too big to be a wolf and very shaggy. The smell burned her nose. Does it roll around in garbage?

  Law had pulled her down a forking trail, and she realized she had no idea where the path back to her car was.

  “What is that?” Bianca whispered.

  Law didn’t respond but yanked her into the trees and off the trail. They kept running, and she struggled to keep up with him. Branches and thorn bushes tore at her clothing and skin. The deeper they went, the darker the woodland grew. A thick canopy of trees blotted out the sun. Bianca’s heart pounded in her chest, and every breath hurt as she struggled not to fall behind too much. Law didn’t even appear winded. There was something unnatural about his stamina.

  Law stopped short. Bianca skidded to a halt beside him. Another one of the creatures, lighter in color, blocked their path. The monster didn’t smell bad, like the first one, but the beast could have used a good bath. Its fur lay matted. Its size wasn’t what scared her; the malevolence and horrible intelligence in its gaze terrified her. She bit her lip to keep from screaming. Maybe this was Bigfoot and Bigfoot was real. Werewolf. She pushed the idea out of her mind as quick as it formed. The monstrosity stood, and took a shocking step towards them. It seemed perfectly comfortable on its hind legs.

  “Stay behind me,” Law ordered over his shoulder in Bianca’s direction. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” For some incomprehensible reason, she trusted him.

  “This doesn’t concern you,” Law said.

  “Huh?” Bianca asked. This sure as hell does concern me; that thing looks ready to eat us.

  “We’re in neutral territory, let us pass,” Law said. She realized he was talking to the brute in front of them. Fear raised the hair on the back of her neck. The creature growled at her, and she cringed. Law pushed her farther behind him, blocking her from the monster’s view. “I offer her my protection.”

  The thing made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a howl.

  She cringed.

  “The old ways are over,” said Bigfoot, or whatever-the-hell it was. His voice was rough, and the words were

  This can’t be real. It didn’t just talk. It couldn’t. Horror filled Bianca. A cold spike of dread radiated from her chest to tingle through her extremities. Her hands shook, and she had to hold onto Law to keep from toppling over. Speaking made the monster scarier.

  Bianca gathered enough courage to look past Law. The creature focused on her. Bianca could have sworn it smiled as its lips curled along its muzzle to display a dangerous row of yellowed teeth. So much worse.

  “She doesn’t know anything. Tell him; I give her my protection.”

  The creature growled, snorted and got back down on all fours. Bianca’s breath rushed out as the monster crouched, ready to spring. Then, seemingly for no reason, Bigfoot let out a gruff snort and disappeared with spooky unnatural grace, melding with the forest shadows.

  “What was that?” she whispered. “Really?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Law said in a soft albeit somber tone.

  “Don’t be such an asshole. I do want to know. Did one of those things kill Lucas and take my Chessa? Is she even alive? I thought I’d know she was dead, but after seeing that thing—I’m not sure about anything anymore.”

  Law ran a hand through his thick, shaggy blond hair and stared into the area where the creature had gone. His lips pressed into a hard line, and his brows drew together. Then Law turned and scrutinized her. He seemed to be looking for his answer in her expression. “Yes, one or both of them are involved with the group that I suspected killed Lucas and kidnapped your daughter. Not everything that looks like a monster is a monster. Can you trust that, Bianca?”

  Is he kidding? “We have to kill it if it’s what murdered Lucas.” She looked up at his face.

  Law’s darkening frown deepened the lines on his rugged features. He scratched at his scruffy dark brown beard. He’d been clean shaven every other time she’d seen him. A man didn’t grow a full beard overnight. Warning tingled in the back of her brain.

  Law didn’t look at her, but a sigh full of unspoken exasperation leeched out of him. “Go home, Bianca.”

  “Go to hell, Foster.”

  A ghost of a grin curved his lips up. “You’re a poet, woman.” She glared at him. Something unreadable passed over his face. “If Chessa is alive, and you want any chance of saving her, go home and wait. There are things going on here you couldn’t understand. I’m not an asshole; I’m just keeping you from dying. Are you going to
leave my people alone now? We don’t have her.”

  “It hurts so much, but I believe you. I’ve wasted my time looking for suspects behind your gate.” Bianca swallowed around the lump in her throat. It was so much easier being sure she was with them alive and close. I don’t want to be wrong. “Foster.” His brow furrowed as she said his name. “I’m sorry.”

  ***

  Chessa’s whole body hurt. Her fingers were numb from the cold and the handcuffs. Her toes ached so she wiggled them in a pointless attempt to warm the tingling digits. Drowsiness kept her head bobbing. Yawning, she squirmed to ease the discomfort of sitting on the concrete floor. She’d spent too much time chained in the sitting position where they’d left her, and something was wrong with her. Constantly thirst tormented her, but water never helped for very long. Her temperature burned for a while and then she felt ice cold again.

  Two unkempt men would come down and gawk at her when the lights came on each day. At least she assumed that meant it was daytime. There were no windows in her prison. My captors are so creepy.

  Chessa was old enough to know what men did to kidnapped girls, but so far she’d been very lucky—if you could call the vile conditions of her cell luck. She shivered. Water leaked in. She tried not to imagine they’d buried her alive, but when she got scared and sad, the thought popped into her head.

  The handle rattled on the door. Adrenaline stole Chessa’s drowsiness, and she pressed tight into the corner. She wasn’t sure what date it was anymore, or even what month. She just wanted to go home. Will they kill me this time?

  The handle rattled again, and the door opened with a squeak. A long dark braid of wavy hair was the first thing through the door. Then a drab gray sweatshirt sleeve appeared. Even the thickness of the material couldn’t hide the thinness of the appendage it covered. Joy came in carrying a large tray. Her big brown eyes appeared sad, as usual. Someone named that woman wrong.

  “Please help me get out of here,” Chessa began with her typical plea. Her voice was hoarse from screaming for help earlier when the men had come. She should just give up. Joy shrugged and looked away.

  Chessa licked her dry, chapped lips. She would have loved a lip balm. “Can you at least help me get into a better position? I’m sore.” The air was so bad and stale in her jail that her skin was a mess. She itched all over because she hadn’t been allowed to bathe or change her clothes the whole time they’d kept her.

  Joy nodded and set the tray down on the rust-stained concrete floor. She went over to the metal wall and pulled a key out of her pocket. Chessa collapsed as Joy released her from the short chain. She had trouble moving her arms as she stood up and stretched. The room was bare except for a blanket and pillow. She hated everything about the space.

  Chessa rubbed her shoulder, where the bite was.

  Joy pulled Chessa’s stained, ripped shirt to the side and looked at the wound. “It looks better.” Joy pulled something out of her pocket. “I brought you this.” She handed a paperback book to Chessa. Wuthering Heights. Chessa had never heard of the story. “Hide it under the blanket.”

  Chessa grinned. She’d never been much of a reader, but anything to break up the boredom was a blessing. Maybe the story will take my mind off Dad. She spent a lot of time shivering in the dark reliving how he died. She’d been bitten and was slowly dying. No one can feel this bad and live.

  “Please, let me go. My mom doesn’t have any money. If they’re waiting for ransom she probably can’t get the cash,” Chessa told Joy. “We could escape together.” She’d noticed more fresh bruises on Joy’s arms. “If they hurt you too, don’t stay.” She stared at Joy. “Help me, and we’ll run away.”

  Joy gave her such a sad smile it made Chessa’s throat ache. A tear slipped down Joy’s check as she reached out and stroked Chessa’s hair away from her face. “If there were a way to escape I’d help you. I’m sorry.” Chessa tried not to cry. Mom wouldn’t cry.

  Chessa was so emotional, and it was more than just the captivity. She didn’t feel like herself anymore. Anger festered inside of her, and something even darker lurked beneath.

  Joy handed Chessa a fresh carafe of water, then she left. Chessa guzzled the liquid but felt no relief. Frustrated, she took her book, and the water, to the best-lit area of her hell. The book was old, and the ragged cover was torn. The pages were frayed from use. Imagining Joy alone in a different dank cell, reading the book, gave Chessa the chills.

  Five

  “Don’t call me woman! That’s so sexist.” Overreacting to Law’s word choice was easier than dealing with living mythology.

  Law turned his head. When he looked at Bianca, his eyes seemed to strip her soul bare. He chuckled. “I told you if you kept looking you’d find things you didn’t want to know about. They’re not going to like that you’ve seen them. This puts you in far more danger than you realize. Just do your daughter a favor and stay alive. If you want to save her, you’ll need to keep out of trouble. Go home and hunker down for the next twenty-four hours. I’m going to do what I can to protect you, but—Bianca you have to trust me.”

  Trust was asking a lot, far more than she thought she could give this strange man. “How do I know you aren’t using your lackeys to make me believe I see something I’m not? You could be planning to move her tonight. This could all be a ploy to scare me away. The Wild Rose Valley PD would never believe I saw what I saw. This is the perfect way to discredit me.”

  “You are trying way too fucking hard to find reasons not to let me help you. Killing you would be a hell of a lot easier than tricking you. I’m supposed to protect my people above all else, but I’ve just given you my vow. I don’t play games or tricks. This is life and death, woman.”

  She shivered and let his second use of “woman” go. “If your people are being threatened by those things, isn’t that all the more reason to get the police involved. My friend Randal Masterson is a game warden. Maybe he can help?”

  “No. This isn’t a problem the police or a game warden can solve. You don’t understand the stakes. These woods have belonged to something beyond human even before the first settlers made their way west to settle here. The Native Americans are smart enough to still believe, but city humans are too happy to make excuses for what they can’t explain.”

  Humans? She stomped her foot and threw her hands up in the air before taking a step closer to him and intentionally invading his personal space. “Stop being evasive. I saw. I believe. Now tell me what those hairy things are or I’m going to the police. Give me one good reason to trust you. Tell me the truth.”

  “The first thing I’m going to tell you is to stop demanding those things be murdered. I need to know you can accept a simple fact—not everything different is evil. There are human murderers in prison, but not all humans are murderers, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “So if I told you those things had the same intellect as a human would you accept that not all of them are dangerous?”

  Bianca gazed at the disturbed brush where the hairy bigfoot-looking thing had ambled away. She remained quiet. Her next words mattered. She’d seen the consciousness in the monster’s eyes.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Okay?”

  “I accept that not every human is a murderer, so it’s possible not all bigfoots are bad.”

  “You didn’t see Bigfoot. There are no such thing as a bigfoot.”

  She exhaled an incredulous cry. “You saw what I saw, right?”

  A loud crashing through the woods interrupted the conversation. Her mind couldn’t even process the extent of the danger until it was too late to run. Both of the creatures were coming for them—her—full speed. Bianca didn’t even have time to scream before the darker-furred monstrosity pounced on her. The other skidded to a halt inches from Foster. The breath returned to her lungs with a gasp, and she gazed wide-eyed into the face of death. The suffocated feeling made her chest ache.

  “She’s a threat,” said the blond-furre
d monster. Bianca turned to gawk at the impossible. It looked Law in the eyes. That voice sounded so familiar. Carter?

  Carter dropped his son off at the community center every third Monday after his monthly weekend because his ex-wife was terrified of him.

  “Tobias is getting older, foolish. I’m making the call to kill her. We need new leadership and your claim on her means nothing. She’s human,” said the Carter-creature as he paced around Law. Bianca tried to swallow past the dry spot in the throat. She pulled her face away from the confrontation between Law and the monster to look into the brown eyes gazing down at her. It growled, and saliva hit her face. She tried not to breathe.

  “I’m not a threat to you. Who would believe me?” she said, making eye contact with the monster on top of her. He barred his teeth at her, growling. Talking wasn’t a good idea.

  “The old ways have kept us safe,” Law said.

  “It’s time for new ways. It’s time for a new generation,” said Carter.

  “Tobias is still your alpha. The old rules stand, and she’s mine,” Law replied. The confidence in his tone gave Bianca hope.

  Carter growled. Law growled back. Law growled. The dark-furred creature turned to look, and so did Bianca. She held her breath as Law’s body twisted and contorted. Fur sprang out to cover his skin. Suddenly overnight beard isn’t so weird anymore. Only a hint of humanity remained in his face as he glanced down at her. Then nothing human lingered.

  Law was one of them, but he didn’t look like a movie monster as Carter, and his friend did. Law morphed into an honest-to-God wolf with beautiful silver fur. Carter attacked, and Law sprang up to meet his adversary mid-air.

  Bianca lay helplessly pinned under the werewolf. Oh dear God, these guys are really werewolves. Please God, let this thing still be male. She jabbed her knee up, hard and fast. The creature yipped, and Bianca used every ounce of her strength to get out from under him. He rolled to his side and emitted a half-grow half-groan. Taking advantage of Carter’s friend’s moment of distraction she picked up a large fallen branch. If Law planned to kill me, I’d already be dead. At that moment, she gave him her trust. Bianca swung hard, cracking Carter in the back of the head.