Seduced by the Moon

by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

  Seeing her jolted the beast inside him.

  He’d been right about this woman. Anxiousness rode the breeze. She was tense, uptight and high-strung, like an animal about to spring.

  But she was also small, blonde, and only half-dressed.

  Gavin stared at the half-dressed part, and the long, lean, very bare legs that melted into delicate ankles and shoeless feet.

  His inner wolf gave a soft, muted whine that scattered when he cleared his throat.

  Christ, temptation was a bitch.

  So was being a goddamn werewolf.

  As for you, woman…

  His attention snapped to identify another smell.

  Metal.

  The woman on the porch had a gun?

  Gavin realized with a sudden flash of intuition that the icy chill now ripping through him wasn’t due only to the alluring sight of the woman, or the scent of her weapon, but to the thing closing in on them from the mountain.

  He must have gauged the strange lure of this area correctly if the prodigal beast he sought returned two days early. Forty-eight hours shy of that next full moon.

  “Ah, hell…”

  With renewed wariness, he glanced again at the cabin and the beauty on the porch whose white T-shirt highlighted her slender torso, and whose face was hidden by a cloud of fair hair. He already felt protective of her. Felt as though he knew her somehow.

  She might have courage enough to try to protect herself, but no gun he knew of would save her if the thing he chased turned its attention her way. He whirled, his boots digging up clumps of dirt. No time to waste. If the visitor heading this way was what he hoped it might be, he needed to lead that abomination away from the cabin.

  With a final look over his shoulder, Gavin took off at a jog because his gut told him he needed to stop this killer before it claimed another poor soul.

  Chapter 2

  Although no one showed up to confront her as she stood on the porch, Skylar knew she was no longer alone, and that she wasn’t dreaming this time. Not a chance in hell.

  Her father’s gun felt heavy and cold in her hands. It was loaded, and she knew how to fire, just as all the Donovan girls did. Their father had been diligent about his daughters’ self-defense.

  That didn’t stop the shaking, though. She had to hold the gun with both hands as she faced the unknown. Someone was out there. This was real. And at this time of night, that felt like bad news.

  Of course, it could be a lost hiker. Maybe it was her father’s crusty caretaker coming by to check on the property, or out for a late-night stroll. But the persistent flush of internal heat told her that those possibilities were false and that someone else was here.

  Instead of retreating inside and locking the door behind her, Skylar stood her ground, scanning the night beyond the meager pool of porch light where evidence of a visitor lay in the sudden silence of insects.

  Biting her lip hard enough to taste blood, she ventured a call. “Where are you? Who are you?”

  The silence was unnerving. She worked at drawing a breath.

  “Not going to show yourself? I’m here, waiting.” She pointed the revolver at the trees on the hillside, upped her volume. “And I’m not happy about it.”

  The taunt produced no results, but she couldn’t give up. Someone was there, somewhere. What if it wasn’t some innocent hiker? Suppose her father’s killer had returned?

  She had to consider that possibility. She refused to believe that her diligent, first-rate climber dad might have fallen to his death. The conclusion she’d come to, independent of her sisters’ opinions, was that if David Donovan had fallen, someone must have pushed him.

  “So who are you? Have you come for me?” she said to the quiet night, getting nothing back. No response at all.

  “No time for hide and seek,” she called out in a last-ditch effort to make contact as she backed up slowly, crossing the threshold in a shuffle of bare feet.

  A change in the air made her pause. Moving the gun, she refocused her aim on a point just south of the path up the hillside.

  “Best to stay inside,” a man’s voice advised from somewhere near the closest trees. “And lock the door. It might also be a good idea to leave here tomorrow.”

  Skylar’s heart skidded over one too many beats, leaving her breathless. “Who are you?” she called out.

  “Ranger, patrolling the area. There’s been some trouble around here.”

  She waved the gun. “I know that, and I know how to use this.”

  “Better to move on before you have to use it,” he said. “A woman alone is far too tempting as a target.”

  “How do you know I’m alone?”

  “It’s my business to know who’s in the area.”

  “You’ve been watching the cabin?”

  “As much as I can, but right now I’m needed elsewhere.”

  “Where’s your car, or whatever rangers use to get around in?”

  “Over the hill behind me.”

  “You run around on foot in the dark?”

  “There aren’t too many paths worthy of a vehicle around here, beyond the main road.”

  “I don’t need you to stand guard,” Skylar said. “Thanks, but you can get on with your business.”

  “Fine. Just offering a friendly warning. Can’t be too careful this far out of town.”

  Skylar waved the gun again. “I’m well aware of that.”

  “Well, good night, then,” the invisible ranger, if that’s what he really was, said.

  “Good night,” Skylar echoed.

  The night air changed again, rearranging itself as though something heavy had been removed and the darkness filled in the vacuum left behind. The result was a powerful charge that left Skylar swaying on her feet.

  This could have been her imagination, she supposed as she shrugged off a new round of chills. But one thing was clear. She had no doubt whatsoever that this ranger’s voice was the voice from her dreams.

  The same damn one.

  She’d bet her life on that.

  *

  “You’re too far out there,” Trish said over the phone the next day in the authoritative tone reserved for bossy older sisters.

  “It’s temporary, so I don’t mind.” Skylar rubbed her bloodshot eyes. Ten minutes of sleep while sitting by the window all night, gun in hand, wasn’t nearly enough for a clear head.

  “I need to get this cabin boxed,” she added, like she did every time she spoke with Trish, which was every day. Sometimes twice.

  “I’ll come and help,” Trish said.

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Then Lark can visit. She can ask for time off.”

  “I’d rather choke.”

  Trish’s voice deepened. “Do you know any of the neighbors?”

  Like most lawyers, Trish didn’t like being crossed or argued with for any reason. As the oldest Donovan sister, Trish would lay out her argument logically and plan on wearing her down with repetition.

  Skylar didn’t want to go home and didn’t want company while she explored the circumstances surrounding her father’s death. Unless hell froze over, she wasn’t going to share that objective with her sisters and get them all riled up.

  Besides, the good Lord only knew what would happen if she were to utter the word werewolf, or mention being harassed by someone who hadn’t really shown themselves last night. If Trish knew any of that, half of Colorado would be on their way over before the phone disconnected.

  Which might not have been such a bad idea, actually, if Skylar’s stubborn streak would have allowed it.

  “The caretaker for this place lives a couple of miles down the road, Trish. I have his phone number right here.”

  Trish snorted her disapproval. “Miles? Like that’s comforting?”

  “I have a gun.”

  Skylar’s announcement preceded a beat of silence over the line.

  “You what?” Trish eventually said.

  “It was Dad’s. I took it fr
om the trunk.”

  “What trunk would that be?” Trish asked. Demanded, really, in her best cross-examination style.

  “The one I found in the attic here. It’s loaded and I know how to use it. We all do.”

  Trish sighed unhappily. Trisha Lilith Donovan saw far too many weapons in her job as a prosecuting attorney to be comfortable with any of them. And Trish, as the eldest sibling and the only Donovan kid not named after a bird, felt responsible for the rest of the motherless girls.

  “I suppose being engaged to the cop for twelve months also had its perks in the weapons department?” Trish suggested.

  Skylar lowered the phone to take a deep breath so that Trish wouldn’t hear it. Trish had said “the cop,” avoiding the use of Danny’s name.

  Skylar raised the receiver when she heard Trish calling her name.

  “Skye? Skylar?”

  “Sorry. I have something cooking on the stove. Can we talk later?”

  “You’re putting me off. We haven’t discussed—”

  “Good. Thanks,” Skylar interrupted. “I’ll call you tomorrow morning.”

  “Skye, wait. I’m sorry I brought up the cop. Really sorry.”

  “No sweat. I’ve moved on, that’s all.”

  “I know, but…”

  “It’s all right. I haven’t been a baby for twenty-three years now. Nor have I ever needed help in making up my mind about something.”

  “I know that, too. But you will always be my baby sister. You can confide in me.”

  “I’m all right, I swear. My fiancé was a bastard, and it took me too long to figure that out. I’m off the hook now. That’s how I look at the breakup. Possibly it was an act of divine intervention in my favor. I feel relief, if you want the truth. We’ll talk again tomorrow. Okay?”

  “Oh, all right.”

  “Bye, Trish.”

  Skylar signed off before the arguments could start up again, and with them the apologies about things not working out with Detective Danny Parker, who had gotten her close enough to matrimony to actually buy the dress.

  But it had never been a match made in heaven, and she’d known that, deep down inside. She’d merely been going through the motions.

  Worse, in terms of regrets, was realizing she’d gone along with Danny’s little mental abuses, and had been swept up in them, rather than openly exerting her true rebellious personality. That hadn’t been like her at all, really. And she hadn’t been lying to Trish about the relief.

  Palming her cell phone, Skylar checked the screen for calls, half expecting Trish to call back. Then she set the phone on the table. Service was spotty in the mountains, and only seemed to like this small area in the front room of the cabin—a fact that wasn’t exactly comforting, she supposed, though Trish didn’t need to know that, either.

  “And if you knew what else I found in that trunk of Dad’s, Trish, you’d send in the tanks,” she muttered.

  Not only had she found the gun in that trunk, well-oiled and ready to go, it was loaded with unusual ammunition that had to have helped shape her dreams. She was sure that silver bullets weren’t the norm for anyone, outside of people chasing their own form of madness.

  Glancing up at the ceiling as if she could see through the rough wooden beams, she said, “Neither are they standard in a psychiatrist’s medicine bag.”

  In the past, she would have called Danny to talk about this, but she was on her own now—which left her imagination wide-open. Because shiny silver ammunition, unless merely something a collector might covet, was de rigueur for hunting…

  “Werewolves.”

  Skylar turned toward the window, attuned to the drop in temperature that signaled another day’s end. Nightfall wasn’t far off.

  “Damn it, Trish. I need to find out what our father was up to, and why it might have killed him.”

  Solving the mystery of her father’s frequent disappearances was paramount, as was finding out why he needed so much time away from everyone he supposedly loved.

  But hell, Dad. Silver bullets?

  In all truth, she had to admit, being in this cabin for a few days by herself, with her dad’s things, had caused her more discomfort than seeing Danny’s face when she told him the engagement was off.

  The men in her life were gone, and she was far too intelligent to imagine that velvet-voiced rangers could have stepped out of her dreams.

  As for monsters…

  The moon would be completely full in another twenty-four hours, a big deal in werewolf lore, at least in the movies. If the approaching moon was some kind of supernatural stimulant, all werewolves would be affected. If there were such things as man-wolf creatures, her dream lover would be affected, too. And with her dad’s gun under her pillow, she’d be ready for anything that dream had to offer.

  Chapter 3

  Gavin hadn’t found the trail of the creature he sought. Although he’d gotten close enough to taste its feral presence, one too many detours had brought him back, time and time again, to stare at the cabin, wishing to see her.

  He hadn’t meant to circle back. He had, in fact, been heading in the opposite direction. Yet here he was again, staring down at the blasted cabin, telling himself, “Don’t be an idiot. No one needs a woman that bad.”

  Obviously, he didn’t believe that on some level.

  The beast he hunted, which had a fondness for blood and sacrifices, disappeared just after midnight. After following its malevolent stench south, the damn thing vanished into thin air. He’d spent a fruitless night backtracking all over the mountain, and more time searching throughout the day to make sure he hadn’t missed anything crucial. Now, once again, darkness wasn’t far off, putting him a hell of a lot closer to the phase of the moon that counted.

  He eyed the cabin warily, figuring that if his interest in the woman down there kept up, he’d have to chain himself to the Jeep to avoid showing up on her doorstep, in person. The next time he confronted that woman, she might do more than point the weapon in his direction. She might actually pull the trigger.

  He thought about that gun, and what it might do to him.

  It was possible that he could he survive a bullet at close range, but it would certainly slow him down. When the beast inside him took over, several bullets might be required to make a permanent dent.

  In theory, anyway.

  He’d only tested his survival skills once, when he was accidentally hit by an arrow fired at him by mistake. That hunter now spent time in a cell.

  And by the way…that arrow had been a bitch.

  Gavin searched the clearing.

  The cabin looked quiet in the evening light, though he knew the woman hadn’t taken his advice and hit the road. A ribbon of gray smoke rose from the chimney.

  Stubborn streak?

  Who in their right mind remained resistant to a ranger’s warning, or stepped outside in the middle of the night to face anyone or anything that might be out there?

  Not courageous, necessarily. More like impulsive.

  Maybe she gets off on danger.

  And just maybe he’d make it his business to find out.

  Besides, he was ravenous for company, and the smoke coming from the cabin carried the smell of food. If he knocked on the door, was there was a remote possibly she’d invite him in for a bite?

  Gavin shook his head, rubbed his eyes.

  She shouldn’t be alone. The last death out here had been gruesome. Some poor doctor found in a gulley, sliced to shreds. Gavin had an idea about how that might have happened, and that idea didn’t include a slippery trail. But he couldn’t speak of it to anyone. Who’d believe him?

  The doctor who had occupied the cabin died just ten days ago, which made the new occupant’s tenancy a quick turnaround. Possibly the woman was part of that man’s family.

  She’d probably have her pants on today.

  Smiling felt strange. So did the compulsion to go down there. He didn’t know why this woman’s presence was so intriguing to him that his v
ow of celibacy strained at its leash.

  He was way too hungry for everything that cabin had to offer, for anyone’s good.

  As for women? He hadn’t dared to sleep with one since he’d been mauled by a hell demon and his life, as he’d always known it, had ceased to exist. He had no idea how the beast, now an integral part of him, would deal with emotion. He wasn’t sure if this nightmare could be passed to others by way of something as insignificant as a scratch or a kiss.

  There seemed to be no rule book for werewolves. No manual. Hell, it was possible there were no others like him, and he’d have to continue to play it by ear.

  “Sorry,” Gavin whispered to the female below, though his insides quaked with a longing for what she could offer that bordered on visceral greed.

  He craved warmth and closeness and the freedom to fill his lungs with the perfume surrounding this woman like an aura. He wanted to run his hands over every inch of her, and see where that led. Test himself. Push himself.

  But he had a job to do and a vow to fulfill. He’d find the beast that had ruined his life, and take that beast down. “Not her,” he said to quiet his inner wolf. “Definitely can’t bother this woman.”

  Want her, his wolfish side protested with a sharp stomach twist.

  “Yes. Okay. I suppose I do,” Gavin admitted as he started down the hill toward the cabin as if pulled there by an invisible chain.

  *

  “Stop right there.”

  Obliging, the man by the fence stopped at the gate.

  Even if she hadn’t guessed that her nighttime visitor would return, Skylar’s first thought actually would have been ranger due to the light green pants and the shirt with a badge on the pocket.

  She wasn’t sure how she noticed the clothing details though, given her initial surprise over how incredibly attractive the rest of him was and how well he fit her dream guy’s stats.

  Tall and rangy, his outfit did little to hide masses of lean, well-honed muscle. Other dreamed attributes were there, too: the broad shoulders and narrow waist, the dark brown hair with its loose waves curtaining a chiseled face. From where she stood, it appeared that every body part seemed perfectly balanced and in accord with his beautifully united whole.