Accepting the Moon: Prequel (Moonrising Book 1) (7 page)

He knew the instant Mena looked at him; he could feel her green eyes on him. She was curious, he knew, but she didn‘t seem afraid. She should be. He should have been stronger and made her fear him. He had been doing a damn good job of intimidating her until he‘d seen her in leather, then he had all but fallen at her feet like a love-struck fool.

Lea would pay greatly for doing that to him.

“Are we going to war?” Mena asked quietly. “Or are you planning to use those on me?”

Holsters. Holsters.

Phoenix walked to a cabinet and opened it to holsters, sheaths and a ton of other miscellaneous items needed to prepare one for battle.

“Phoenix?” she whispered, stopping him in his tracks.

His eyes slammed shut and in he breathed the scent of her as she slowly entered the room. Clearing his throat and scrambling in his mind to lock up his sanity before she had complete and utter control over him, he opened his eyes, cool and collected once again, and glared at her under dark lashes. “You‘re going to need protection from your own kind until they accept you as their pack leader. I have a feeling none of them are going to like having a woman as their Alpha.”

“And you‘re just going to put all that stuff on me and throw me to the wolves, so to speak?”

His lips thinned as he pursed them together, and he nodded once. “Yes. That about sums it up,” he said, and had to turn back to the cabinet to keep from seeing the sadness in her eyes.

She already knew she was a dead dog. Why sugarcoat it for her?

“Do you want this war to end, between werewolves and vampires?”

Phoenix watched his knuckles turn white as he squeezed the leather holster in his fist. “It‘s not that easy—”

“I didn‘t say it would be easy, but I do believe it‘s possible.”

He turned then to look at her. How had she become so strong in so little time? He remembered when he had become master of his vampire clan. He‘d been terrified. You didn‘t have anyone to look up to when you were at the top. Nothing to gain and everything to lose. He knew how she felt. Alone. He had felt alone. He still felt that way, but now there was Mena, perhaps offering him another option.

“You want me to make you hybrid?”

She shook her head. “No. I don‘t want to belong to anyone.”

“What do you suggest we do?”

She smiled. “We try.”

The expression etched on his face was comical to me. Had I suggested we do something that absurd? I didn‘t think so.

I watched him, waiting patiently for him to come to a conclusion. Would he think that working together to end something so horrible was a bad thing? I knew I couldn‘t do it alone. I wasn‘t even sure I could survive against my own people, much less end a war that had been going on for God only knew how long.

We were both leaders and it was up to us what happened, right? How was it that he couldn‘t comprehend how simple it should be to stop all this crap? Sure, we would have to convince a lot of our own that this was the right thing to do, but, honestly, what were we even fighting for? More gain? More power? Bragging rights? I just didn‘t see it. Maybe it was just me.

“Let me get this straight: you want us to be friends and work together to end a war that has lasted over a thousand years? That
is
what you‘re saying, right?”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

His eyebrows raised a fraction and were hidden behind the loose curls hanging almost to his eyes. “I think it‘s a death sentence for both of us.”

“So, you would rather be my enemy?”

He let his eyes slowly sweep down and then back up my body again. After a moment, he shook his head. “No—no, I don‘t want to be your enemy.”

My heart swelled. Maybe this could work, that was if I could survive being slaughtered by my own pack tonight. I wasn‘t looking forward to meeting them, but the inevitable was going to happen when the moon rose high in the sky. I couldn‘t stay here with Phoenix; I had no idea what I would be capable of after I turned into a werewolf. He had been right: our kind were made to be enemies and hate each other, fight to the death. My goal was to change that.

“I was hoping you‘d say that.” I looked to the table and the weapons he had put there for me to use to protect myself against my own people. “Load me up. I have respect to earn tonight.”

Mena looked like a true, badass warrior after Phoenix put the last sheath in place on her right thigh.

Stepping back a bit, his fingers came up to play along his chin in thought. There was something missing, he mused, and then took his cell from his pocket and texted Lea a message.

“Well?”

“Something‘s missing,” he said. “Lea is on her way.”

Mena snickered. “I don‘t think anything else is going to fit on my body.”

Phoenix‘s mouth turned up at one corner as he thought about how fun it would be to take everything back off and not stop at the clothes once he got to them.

Mena looked to the door when Lea entered with a brush and ponytail holders, but Phoenix kept his eyes on her as his assistant went to work.

He nodded once, silently dismissing Lea after she finished. She left quietly.

“How do I look?”

Sin. A good nightmare. Sexy as hell. The death of me. My ruin.
He cleared his throat and walked to the cabinet to put the things he hadn‘t used away. “You look fine,” he mumbled.

“I look like Lara Croft.”

“Who is Lara—” Phoenix started, but turned around to find her right in front of him, and all of a sudden his vocals forgot how to work.

“Am I ready?”

“No. Not even close.” He walked around her and out of the room. She followed. He could feel her and sense the questions coming. “Lea, is the car ready?”

“It is,” Lea said, and fell into step beside him.

“The car?” Mena said.

Lea handed Phoenix a strip of black fabric without answering Mena.

“And you know where to take her?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Take me where?”

“Good. Give her an untraceable cell and put my number in her contacts in case she needs backup.”

Lea nodded and handed the phone in her hand to Mena.

“But where am I going?” Mena said as they arrived at a staircase, leading up to a single door.

Phoenix reached back and took Mena‘s hand without giving her eye contact. “What‘s the time?”

“6:10,” Lea replied. “The sun set twenty-three minutes ago.”

Phoenix nodded and tried to ignore the tingling sensation he was getting from touching Mena‘s bare skin. “Good,” he said, and unlocked and then opened the door at the top of the stairs. He made brief eye contact with Lea after she issued from the basement after Mena.

“I‘ll wait in the car,” Lea said, and then left them to be alone.

“Phoenix—”

“Shh…” he said, and turned to face her. Why had he thought the urge to kiss her would have simply just vanished in the minute and a half it took to get away from her in the weapon room? If anything, it had only grown stronger. Was he crazy to let her walk out of there without protection from his clan? The pack would kill her. He knew they would. If for some reason he was wrong about that, there was the other worry in the back of his mind: the men. There were so many for her to choose from. Which one would she choose to mate with? Which one would he have to kill? And why did he feel like he needed to stake his claim on her, mark
his
territory?

Those green eyes looked up at him, frightened. She was so scared. He could hear the rapid beating of her heart and see it pulse in the light blue vein of her jugular.

Phoenix fought the impulse to let his fangs fully extend as her scent wafted past his nose. He knew she had wanted him to kiss her earlier, almost as much as he had wanted to, but that would have only caused them bigger, more dangerous problems.

Werewolves and vampires are not meant to bond,
he told himself, yet again.

“You will be fine,” he lied. “Take out the biggest one first. It will let them know you are serious, and maybe they will back off.”

Mena nodded and tears filled those beautiful eyes.

Christ! She was going to be his undoing!

He shook her a little. “You have to be strong. They can smell your fear. If you can make it through this first change without them killing you, you‘ll be fine. You took the life of the pack leader, Mena, so you have more power than they do. I wish we had time to discover all the abilities you have, but sadly, the moon is rising and you‘ll change soon. I don‘t want to be anywhere near you when that happens.”

Her breath hitched and he struggled to keep from comforting her; it would only cause her to fall apart, and focused and strong was what she needed to be at the moment.

“I will be expecting your call in the morning. Stay alive and make that happen, Mena.” He took a step back and held out his hand to lead her to the car, but she flung herself on him and wrapped her arms around his torso. His reaction was instantaneous. His arms enveloped her and held her shuddering form tightly in his embrace.

How could he do this? How could he just let her go in alone?

“Stay,” he heard himself whisper. He moved back enough so he could frame her face in his hands. “I know it sounds cruel, but I have a cell I can lock you in until you change back. We need more time to sort this out before you go to them.”

Mena gave him a sad smile and shook her head. “I need to do this now. I will look weak to them if I hide. I can do this, Phoenix.”

“I‘ll come with you and bring some of my clan as backup—” he started, but she was shaking her head again, refusing his offer to help.

“We are trying to stop this war. If you or any of your people show up, I fear it will only enrage them. I haven‘t even met them yet, but I can somehow feel them in me. They are waiting.”

Phoenix sighed and pulled her to him once again. “You have my number. I will be there with an army the moment you call. Well, as long as it‘s still night. The sun and I don‘t exactly see eye to eye on a few things, well, actually just one thing.”

Mena snickered and pulled out of the embrace.

“You are not alone in this.” He brushed the back of his fingers over her cheek and sighed, knowing he needed to pull away and put some distance between them. How had he fallen under her spell so easily?

“I will call if I need you,” she said and backed away.

With an ache in his chest he was unfamiliar with, he let her go.

“I‘ll walk you to the car.” Phoenix turned on his heel and strode to the door. It felt like he had a thousand pound weight on his arm as he lifted it to put his hand on the door handle. He had to let her go. She could change at any minute.

Mena cleared her throat from behind him, and he turned the handle and opened the door a few inches, and then shut it with a slam and turned to her wide eyes.

He didn‘t give himself time to talk his way out of it; he just took her face in his hands and brought her mouth up to meet his.

There was a short surprised sound that came from her, but it quickly turned into a low moan of approval and her lips parted, inviting him in. He didn‘t need any more encouragement than that. He took. Greedily. Without remorse. He was sure she would probably feel regret later. He didn‘t care. This was now. And that was all that mattered to him.

His hands slid back behind her head and he pulled the long braid Lea had constructed and broke away from her mouth to take possession of her neck. Even though his fangs protruded slightly, he didn‘t strike her. Blood wasn‘t what he wanted from her. He wanted her body, blissfully naked, on his bed and spread out for the taking.

He kissed over her collarbone and made his way back to her mouth, knowing full well that his fantasy wasn‘t going to happen this night, nor would he even try if they hadn‘t been faced with the cruel reality that she would turn into a wolf and howl at the moon in only a few short hours. Minutes. Seconds. Who the hell cared when it would actually happen? The fact was that it would happen, and a lot sooner than he wanted it to.

“You have put a spell on me, wolf. Each second that passes that I don‘t have your mouth on mine is sweet, agonizing torture. Give me your lips.”