Lisa Kessler - Moonlight

But Adam told me his father was the Alpha. Not him. Not yet.

A lone howl broke the tension, and all of the wolves turned. This was my chance to give myself up to Nero. No one had to die because of me.

I bent down close to Adam’s head and whispered, “I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying, but I love you, Adam. I love you.”

And then I turned to go.

Adam snapped at the leg of my pants. I tugged but I couldn’t break free. I stared into the blinding lights of the Nero van and held my hands up.

“Give me a minute,” I called out. I couldn’t see them, but I didn’t hear anyone moving, and no bullets were fired.

When I looked back to try to get Adam to let me go, a huge silver wolf stepped forward. The other wolves parted to let him through. As he got closer I could see his intelligent emerald eyes sparkling in the moonlight, and I knew.

This was Adam’s father.

His upper lip rose up to reveal long, sharp canines, but he didn’t growl. Adam immediately let go of my pant leg, but he didn’t move from in front of me. The Alpha pushed against him and finally snarled, but Adam stood his ground. Circling me, the silver wolf sniffed the air toward the lights of the van, and then started along the back of my leg.

I tried to hold still partly out of fear. This was a wolf, regardless of what he might have been an hour ago, and I stood still for his inspection because he wore the mantle of Alpha. Although I wasn’t a werewolf, on an instinctive level, I recognized his station and respected him for it. But deep down, I really wanted him to accept me. Besides not wanting the Pack to turn on me, I also knew this was Adam’s father. Adam’s family.

I bit back tears. Adam had just admitted his affection for a jaguar, the enemy, in front of his entire family. I wasn’t a secret anymore.

Sadly, it didn’t solve anything. The other wolves made it obvious they wanted Adam away from me. Would he be willing to disobey his father, his Alpha, in front of the Pack? It would humiliate both men. I couldn’t do this. This was Adam’s family, not mine. I didn’t have a family. I had to go.

I spun on my heel to walk to the Nero van, only to come face-to-face with the silver wolf. He barred his teeth and growled again. Before I realized what was happening, the rest of the wolves charged the van, and then the bullets started flying.

“No!” I screamed.

Adam lunged up against my back, knocking me to the ground while gunfire echoed around us. He barked in my face, and I got the distinct feeling he was telling me to stay put. With bullets flying, I was fine with lying low. Adam loped off, and my heart raced. He should be lying low too.

Raising my head as little as possible, I tried to see what was happening, grateful for my excellent night vision. The wolves were everywhere. I heard men screaming, more gunshots, and then I noticed another black wolf, almost identical to Adam, over at the tree line. He was limping and dragging something large with him.

Then I realized what his package was.

Sasha.

Before I could decide if I should stop him or just let him have her, something occurred to me. Where was Sebastian? He’d shown up before all hell broke loose. Before Sasha got knocked out with a tranquilizer dart. I didn’t see him anywhere.

I turned back toward the van and saw a familiar face. Cyrus.

He raised his gun at Adam and adrenaline shot through my veins. “No!” I jumped to my feet revealing my position. “Leave him alone! I’ll go with you.”

The second his eyes flicked toward me Adam attacked. Gunfire deafened my ears, and a giant silver wolf knocked me to the ground. I struggled, not certain if I was being attacked or protected.

Adam. Please let him be all right.

I rolled out from under the large wolf and rocked up on my knees. Relief swamped my entire body when the black wolf with a bullet hanging from his neck stood over a body growling. Cyrus didn’t struggle. In fact, he laid deathly still.

“Retreat!” A male voice shouted.

Doors slammed and an engine started up. None of the men tried to rescue their fallen leader. The red taillights of the van grew smaller as it drove away. No license plate. Nothing.

A high-pitched whine broke the spell. At the sound, Adam left Cyrus’s mangled body and galloped over to the silver wolf who had knocked me down. He nudged at the silver wolf with his snout and huffing at the Alpha. He wasn’t getting up. I knelt beside the wolf and quickly found blood spreading across his fur.

“Oh God, he’s been shot,” I whispered as the wolves circled around me.

Adam whined again, pushing at the silver wolf’s nose. I ran my hands down his side, grateful when I felt his flanks moving. He was still breathing. I needed to stop the bleeding, fast.

The entire area reeked of blood. I’d never seen anything like it. While I searched for something to use as a compress, my stomach retched, and a dry cough escaped my lips. I forced myself to keep moving until I found one of the Nero agents motionless on the ground, his throat ripped wide open. For a second the horror of it short-circuited my brain. I wasn’t sure where to start with this body.

I looked back at Adam with the silver wolf, his father. The image brought me back, forced me through the fear. I didn’t want Adam to lose his family. Staring back down at the body, I decided not to try to pull his shirt off. I wasn’t sure how well his head was still fastened to his body, I thought all too easily. Instead, I ran to his feet, ripping off his shoes so I could get to his socks.

I hurried back to Adam’s father, fell to my knees, and pressed a sock against the wound, hard enough to enter the bullet hole. The silver wolf whimpered, and I stroked his head gently, hoping it might calm him.

“I’m sorry it hurts. I’m trying to stop the bleeding. Just rest now.”

But instead of resting the wolf started to pant. Hard. His muscles tensed and trembled under my fingertips.

“What’s happening?” I looked over my shoulder, but the big black wolf with the silver bullet around his neck was gone. “Adam?” I called out. “Where are you?”

The hollow sound of joints snapping and popping drew my attention back to the injured wolf. His large body convulsed, and I suddenly realized what was happening.

“You’re shifting.” My eyes welled with tears. “No.” I shook my head. “No, you can’t waste the energy.”

I had no idea if he could understand me. But he was mutating back into a man whether I wanted him to or not. Maybe that’s what happened when they were injured or…dying.

As his fur vanished, leaving smooth tanned skin behind, I saw the exit wound of the bullet through his back. The hole was larger than I’d expected and glistened with fresh blood. I folded the other sock and bent over him to press it against the exit wound. The change was nearly finished, and the man moaned, wincing as I applied pressure.

“We need to get you to a hospital.” My heart was racing. There was too much blood.

“Jason, go change. Now.” The sound of Adam’s voice startled me.

I spun around to find him standing right behind me. He was naked in the moonlight, his jaw set, his eyes determined. One of the tan wolves with orange eyes—Jason, I assumed—raced off into the trees.

“You’re a man again. How?” Forming full sentences felt like performing high level math. “The moon is still full. I…”

Adam answered in spite of my inability to verbalize. “Yeah. It hurts like hell, but we can shift back by force.” Moonlight glistened in the sweat all over his face and chest. “Takes a lot to control the wolf during a full moon, but we can if we have to.”

He knelt beside me, and I met his eyes. “He’s losing too much blood.”