Sherrilyn Kenyon: Bad Moon Rising

Her vision swam at that. He held on to her as if she were the most precious thing he’d ever touched and it made the love inside her well up. Gods, how she loved the way he felt against her. The hardness of his body. The deep masculine smell of his skin. She could stay like this forever.

“Uncle Fang?”

Smiling, Aimee looked down to see Trace tugging at Fang’s leg.

“What you need, sport?”

Trace wrapped his arms around Fang’s leg, squeezed tight, then ran off toward the kitchen.

Aimee laughed. “I guess he needed the same thing I did.”

“Guess so.” Fang took her hand into his and pulled her toward the dining room.

Bride pegged them both with a stern frown. “What are you two up to?”

Fang looked at Aimee then back at Bride. “What?”

“You look like two wolves who found a bone.” It was a Katagaria expression that meant the same thing as the cat who ate a canary.

Bride’s gaze dipped to Fang’s hand. She gasped and almost dropped the salad bowl she was holding. Setting it on the table, she snatched his palm up to look at it. “Oh, gods, you’re mated!” Then her eyes really widened. “I really hope it’s to Aimee.”

Aimee laughed before she held her palm up to show her. “Thankfully so. Otherwise I’d have had to kill me some ho and then beat Fang senseless.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, you know my future sessions are all under your control.”

“Dog right, boy.”

Vane entered the room and looked around with a puzzled frown. “What’s going on?”

“Your brother’s mated.”

“Yeah, to Angelia.”

“Not Fury, sweetie.”

It took a second for the news to register. Vane gaped at them before he held his hand out to Fang. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Fang said, shaking it.

Lia came running forward from the kitchen. “Let me see!” she said to Aimee. She grinned as she compared their marks, which were basically the same except for the colors. Aimee’s was blue while Lia’s was red. “Welcome to the family. Not that you weren’t here already, but now it’s official.”

In spite of her happiness, those words brought a stab of pain as Aimee realized her birth family would never be this happy for her.

It was so unfair.

But she wouldn’t let it taint her joy. At least that was what she told herself. The truth, however, was that it did. No matter what happened, her family was her family and she wanted them with her.

Their absence ached deep inside her heart, but she refused to show that to the others. They were happy for her and she was so grateful for them that words couldn’t convey even an inkling of what she felt. So she sat there, choking back her tears while Vane and Bride broke out champagne and they all celebrated.

Even Fury when he returned was thrilled. He kissed her on the cheek and shook Fang’s hand.

Aimee excused herself from them and went to the bathroom. The moment she was alone, she shut the door and flashed herself to the alley outside of Sanctuary. It was completely dark. Eerily so. She glanced up at the light that had always been moody on its best night.

When would Griffe get around to fixing it?

Missing her family, she went to the door to open it, then stopped.

They won’t be happy . Tears gathered in her eyes as those words cut through her. She wanted to run inside and tell her parents. To have them laugh and congratulate her the way they’d done for her mated brothers. She wanted Dev and Remi and all the others to congratulate her too.

It would never happen.

Go home .

A single tear fled down her cheek. This was her home…

But not anymore. This would never be her home again.

Her home was with Fang as his mate. Forcing herself to let go of the doorknob, she stepped back. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of pink from the corner of her eye.

She went over to it. Her heart sank as she realized it was the body of their waitress, Tara. Just like the other murders that the police had tried to blame on Fang, she was completely drained of blood.

But she still had her soul…

Stumbling back, she realized in an instant what this was.

A demon kill.

Her breathing ragged, she started for the door only to feel an evil presence in the alley with her.

Someone tsked. “You didn’t really think you’d be able to interrupt us and then go your own way, did you?”

Out of the darkness stepped not one, but an army of demons.

Fang was laughing with Vane as a rancid chill went straight down his spine. A chill that turned into shredding talons as every instinct inside him went on high alert.

In an instant, he knew what it was.

“Aimee’s in trouble.”

Fury arched one sarcastic brow as he scoffed. “In the bathroom? What’d she do? Eat the wrong thing?”

He gave Fury a fierce glare. “No. She’s at Sanctuary.”

Vane frowned at him. “What?”

“She must have flashed there to see her family.” Unwilling to waste another second trying to explain it to his dense brothers, he teleported himself out to find her in the alley, surrounded by demons as she fought them back with her staff.

There were easily two dozen, with more appearing to attack as if someone had opened a portal to hell.

Fang met her determined gaze. He manifested his sword to fight them. “Get inside.”

For once, she didn’t argue. “I’ll get help.”

After making sure she got inside without harm, Fang raked the advancing demons with an arrogant sneer. “Ready to dance, punks? It’s killin’ time.”

A imee ran to the bar where Dev, Remi, Colt, and Wren were, along with her father. They all stared at her as if she were a ghost.

“What are you doing here?” Papa asked.

Aimee struggled to slow her rapid breathing as she felt the sweat rolling down her back. Her entire body was shaking from the battle she’d just left and she was pretty sure her Sentinel markings were showing on her face-especially given the way Remi was eyeing her-but she didn’t have time or strength to worry about it. “Tara’s dead. Fang is outside in the alley, surrounded by demons. He needs help. Now!”

Dev started forward only to have Maman’s sharp voice stop him. “The wolf means nothing to us. They declared war the moment they caused Savitar to revoke our license. We have no use for them. Let the demons have him.”

Aimee gaped, then glared. Rage took hold of her as she faced her mother. “He might not mean anything to you, Maman, but he is my mate.” She held her palm out to her mother to show her Fang’s mark. “And if none of you will help him, then I’ll do it myself, and I’ll never forgive you for it.”

She started to flash herself out, but before she could she saw Blakemore’s pack come through the door.

Every member, male and female, was there with a look on their face that said they had come here loaded for bear. They stood shoulder to shoulder in battle formation, heads low, eyes alert.

It was obvious this wasn’t a coincidence. This was a well-planned, calculated attack on Sanctuary. Suddenly, everything made sense about the demons outside.

And she knew exactly who was to blame.

Eli.

He’d summoned them up and tonight, on the anniversary of his son’s death, he was going to clean bear hide.

Dev grabbed the two swords off the wall above the bar. He tossed one to Kyle and kept the other. “C’mon, cub, let’s go save Fang before Aimee hurts us. Remi, the rest of you take out the trash in the bar and make sure you crush it first.”

Remi inclined his head before he jumped over the bar and went for the wolves.

The last sight Aimee had before she flashed to the alley was of all hell breaking loose as Eli’s thugs attacked the Sanctuary staff. People screamed, guns went off, and bodies entwined in a deadly blur.