Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter #18)(9)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Aimee went cold as she remembered Fang’s presence. She froze in Remi’s arms as instant regret tore through her. How could she have forgotten he was here?

She turned and saw the anguish he hid behind an emotionless expression. It burned deep in his eyes. "Fang-"

He vanished before she could finish her apology.

Aimee cursed. How could I have been so stupid?

The problem was she didn’t include him in the same category as Stone and his crew. And up until she’d met Fang and his pack, Stone was the only wolf she’d ever been around.

Remi tsked at her as Dev took Stone inside. "Guess you hurt his little feelings, huh?"

Aimee had to bite her tongue to keep from telling him to shut up.

I can’t leave it like this. . . .

Without a word to her brothers, she closed her eyes and zoned in on Fang. He’d manifested not with his pack or brother, but on the lower end of Bourbon Street where he sat on a stoop looking as ill as she felt.

How strange . . .

Fang sat alone outside of a ubiquitous New Orleans row house as anger, hurt, and hatred burned deep in his stomach. He should just go home.

Yeah, right. . . .

Vane was being as moody as a teen Gemini on her period after he’d seen some human he was now pining for. Anya was off with her mate and Petra hissed and growled every time she saw him. Alone and lonely, he’d been wandering around the French Quarter, trying to get his bearings on their latest den.

Somehow he’d found his way back to Sanctuary.

No, it wasn’t "somehow." He’d gone there seeking the one thing he knew he shouldn’t seek.

Aimee. All he’d wanted was just to catch a glimpse of her. He’d told himself that that would be enough to ease the ache inside him. Just one glimpse and he’d be satisfied.

He let out a tired breath. What had he really expected? That Aimee would fall into his arms, strip him nak*d, and make love to him?

She’s a bear.

You’re a wolf.

No, according to her, he was a filthy dog who should be rounded up and executed.

"Fang?"

He looked up at her gentle voice to see her appear on the street in front of him. "How’d you find me?"

Aimee paused at the hostile tone. "Your scent," she lied, not willing to tell him about her powers.

"I don’t leave a scent. I know better."

She shook her head in denial. "You leave a scent." It’d been branded into her senses the moment he’d kissed her.

"Whatever." He pushed himself to his feet. "Look, I don’t need any more insults from you or anyone else. I’m over my quota for the day. Just go home and leave me alone."

She pulled on the sleeve of his jacket to stop him from leaving. "I didn’t mean what I said."

"Don’t insult my intelligence. I’m not a dog and I heard the sincerity in your tone. You meant every word of it."

She stiffened angrily. "All right, so I meant what I said. Sue me. But it was directed at Stone and his craven bullies. I didn’t even think to include you in that category."

Yeah, right. How stupid did she think he was? "I don’t believe you."

Aimee wanted to cry in frustration. But the one thing she knew about pigheaded men . . . there was no way to change their minds. "Fine. Don’t believe me then." She let go of his sleeve and held her hands up in surrender. "I don’t even know why I bothered."

"Why did you bother?" He moved closer to her. So close she was dizzy from it and all she really wanted to do was tuck herself into his arms and feel him hold her.

The scent of his skin filled her head. She could feel the warmth from his body. . . .

Every piece of her sizzled. There was no other word for it. Maman was right, there was no mistaking this. This was the quickening she was supposed to feel-the overwhelming lure to mate. That one elusive sensation she’d been trying so hard to experience with her kind.

And Fang was the only one who made her feel it.

Damn.

She ground her teeth before she answered with the truth. "I didn’t want you angry at me."

"Why not?"

"I don’t know." But she did know and that was the most upsetting part of all. She wanted him.

All of him.

He reached for her. Aimee stood still, wanting that touch. Needing it.

But she couldn’t. This is so wrong. . . .

It would crush every person who meant something to her. Everyone she loved.

Stepping back, she bit her lip. "I need to get back and check on Wren. He doesn’t do well around other people or animals."

"Neither do I."

She swallowed, then forced herself to vanish.

Fang stood there in the darkness, savoring the last remnants of her scent on the breeze. He wanted to howl over it.

Most of all, he wanted to track her down and ease the pain inside him that wanted to savor every inch of her lush body.

His breathing ragged, it took all his control not to chase after her. But she’d made it clear that she was off-limits to him. He would honor that.

Even if it killed him.

Looking down at the bulge in his jeans, he decided that outcome wasn’t as far-fetched a thought as it should be.

Stone was captured by the bears . . . again."

Eli Blakemore looked up from the book he was reading to pin a menacing glare on his son’s second in command. What was his name? David? Davis? Donald? Dreck?

It didn’t matter. He was born of lesser stock anyway. Unlike his lineage, the Arcadian before him came from some unknown Apollite half-wit Eli’s ancestor had experimented on.

Eli’s bloodline came straight from the king of Arcadia himself-from the king’s eldest son, no less. That distinction had been impressed upon him from the moment of his birth. Theirs was a sacred duty to show the plebeians how to behave and to police the animals his ancestor should have slaughtered the moment they were created.

And he’d be damned if a group of Katagaria mongrels was going to touch his illustrious son.

Rising to his feet, he set his book down with a calmness he didn’t feel. "Have Varyk come to me."

The wolf gulped audibly. "Varyk?"

Eli gave him a tight-lipped smile. Varyk was the most lethal werewolf ever born. A natural-born killer, Varyk would be the tool Eli would use to destroy that nest of filth that had infested his city. He was sick of those bears and all they represented.

It was time they took back New Orleans for once and for all. Sanctuary was going to burn to the ground.

And Varyk would light the match.

"Yes. Varyk. Fetch him. Now."

CHAPTER SEVEN

Aimee was still shaken by her encounter with Fang as she sat beside Wren’s bed. In his tigard form, he lay on his side without moving.

"What happened?"

He blinked twice before he answered. "I took the trash out and they were waiting for me."

"What did you do to them?"

"Nothing. I think they were waiting for any one of us to come out. I was just the poor ass**le dumb enough to be there. . . . Sadly enough, I ignored their rampant stupidity until Stone kicked me in the back. Then it was on."

She stroked his soft fur. As typical, the wolves had been looking for a fight. "I’m so sorry, Wren."

He covered her hand with one large paw. "Don’t be. The gods only know what they’d have done had it been you or Cherise or one of the other females. I’m just pissed off I can’t control my powers enough to give them the fight they should have had."

She smiled at him as Marvin, his pet monkey, jumped up on the bed to chatter by his pillow. When Wren didn’t move, Marvin leaned forward to hug his large tigard head and stroke one of his pointed ears. Now, that had to be the cutest thing she’d seen in a long time.

"I’ll let you rest. If you need anything, call."

"Thanks."

Aimee crossed the room and was careful not to shut the door too hard. Wren hated sharp sounds. She wasn’t sure if it was from his acute hearing or something bad from his childhood. Either way, she wasn’t about to upset him after what he’d been through.

As she neared the stairs, she met her mother who was coming up them with a stern glower.

"Is something wrong?"

Maman curled her lip. "That stupid tigard. I need to ask him why he attacked those wolves."

Aimee was aghast at the accusation. "He didn’t. They attacked him."

"So say you and probably him too, but the wolves have a different tale and there are more of them willing to swear to it."

"They’re lying."

Maman made a sound of supreme aggravation. "And you would take Wren’s word?"

"You won’t?"

"No." Maman glared at Wren’s door. "He’s unnatural. Everything about him, right down to that filthy monkey he keeps."

Then what was Aimee? A Katagari bear who became Arcadian at puberty. One with the tracking powers of a goddess who was currently attracted only to a wolf. You didn’t get more unnatural than that.

Which was why she couldn’t tell her mother the truth about herself. Yes, her mother loved her, but her mother was an animal and their instincts were to kill anything that was different.

"Whatever Wren is, Maman, he’s not a liar. Stone and his group on the other hand . . . when have they ever been honest?"

"They have sent over an emissary. If I fail to give them Wren, they will go before the Omegrion and say that I’m harboring a danger to all lycanthropes. Have you any idea what could happen? We could lose our license and our home."

"Then give them Stone back. That’s all his father wants anyway. Tell them Wren will be disciplined by us."

"And you rule here, since when?"

Aimee tilted her head down in respect to her mother. "Forgive me for overstepping my bounds. I would just hate to see an innocent punished while the filth of the universe is allowed to dance away freely, especially since they would have jumped any of us who’d been in that alley and that includes you or me."

Her mother’s look hardened. "My instincts are to throw Wren to them. He attracts trouble, and we don’t need him here. I don’t want him here." She let out a long sigh. "However, he was brought to us by Savitar himself." Savitar was the one in charge of the Omegrion. The one being no one crossed or questioned. Ever. "So the human side of me recognizes a degree of leverage so long as I protect him. I will try your way, ma petite. But if it fails, he will go to them. No matter what you say."

And I’ll go with him to protect him. Aimee didn’t say that out loud. Her mother couldn’t stand for anyone to question or contradict her-it was the nature of the beast. This was Nicolette’s den and they were all subject to her final rule.

"Thank you, Maman."

Her mother inclined her head to her before she reversed direction to descend the stairs.

Aimee followed after her, wondering what was going on in Eli’s mind. For years they’d had trouble with that insufferably arrogant jerk and his scouts. But then nothing his clan did had ever made sense to her.

Still, there was a tingle in the back of her mind as if warning her this wasn’t his random lunacy. There was something more to what was going on.

Something sinister.

Stone glared at Dev as the filthy bear opened the cage they’d thrown him into. At least he’d finally stopped changing forms. "I take it you’ve finally come to your senses."

Dev laughed. "If that were true, I’d be hauling you and that cage out to the swamp to feed you to the gators. Unfortunately, your daddy sent over someone to claim you."

Expecting it to be Darrel, he was surprised when Dev opened the door and Varyk stood there in all his savage glory. Tall, ruthless, and pissed, Varyk had shoulder-length brown hair and eyes that were so blue they were piercing and glacial. A derisive smirk was permanently chiseled on his handsome face. And his tough stance always said he was looking for someone to gut.

Stone swallowed as a chill went down his spine. Varyk was only marginally sane. . . .

And that was on his best day.

By the angry glower on Varyk’s face, this wasn’t one of those better days.

What the hell was his father thinking by sending him here?

Personally, Stone would rather stay in his cage than spend even a second in this man’s presence. "Where’s my father?"

Varyk growled low in his throat. "You don’t speak, boy. Maybe never again." He grabbed him roughly by the neck and shoved him at the door. He turned back toward Dev. "Where’s the one who attacked him? I was to escort him back as well."

The bear shook his head in a brazen denial that Stone had to admire. It took guts to annoy someone like Varyk. "No can do. Wren stays here."

"Not what I was told."

Dev flashed him a taunting grin that Stone would respect if it wasn’t such a suicidal move on the bear’s part. "Well, I just told you."

Varyk gave him an arch stare. "And you don’t matter to me, table scrap."

"That feeling is entirely mutual, bear bait. Hell, I don’t even acknowledge you as being here. So get out and take your trash with you."

Varyk’s deadly gaze turned brittle. "You really don’t want to take that tone with me."

Dev crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I do have several others we can choose from. Contemptuous. Angry. Snide. Aggravated. How about I just settle on extreme sarcasm and we call it even?"