Hidden Moon (Hot Moon Rising #4) (3 page)

the pack gotten so bored it looked for more entertainment at his expense?

“No, thanks. I’ll head over there now using the directions you gave me. I could use

some sleep myself.”

“Don’t be in such a rush,” Brett, one of the asshole jocks from high school days, said

from across the room. “As soon as your old man passes, you’ll need to know how to run

this place.”

“That’s a scary thought,” Barbara added. Had the short redhead remained Shelley’s

best friend? “If his scabs don’t fall in the food, he’ll probably attack the tourists.”

“Maybe he’ll boil them in a pot and serve them to us as a lunch special,” Brett said.

The resulting laughter sounded as cruel as it had on prom night, and it still had the

same effect, flaying into him like a bunch of knives. Barely surviving a brutal attack

hadn’t blunted their bullying skills one bit. Unbelievable.

“What if he boils us?” Curtis speculated. “You know what he did to me in high

school.”

“Enough!” Shelley put her hands on her hips and glared around the room. “The diner

is closed. Get your butts out of here. I’m tired.”

Alan was already out the door, struggling to fight off a shift as a blanket of heavy,

humid air hit him. Overhead, a perfect half-moon mocked him from a silvery-blue sky.

Without thinking, he picked up the outdoor cigarette butt container—a heavy thing

made of concrete—ready to toss it through the nearest car windshield.

“Alan!”

Shelley’s voice stopped him. He dropped the container, narrowly missing his foot,

and fled. When she followed, he turned his head and growled at her.

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“Stay the hell away from me!”

The sooner he saw his father the faster he could be on a flight back to Dulles. He

never should have come here. He’d pay for the best care available if Dad needed it, but

he sure as hell wasn’t going to hang around this rat-hole town and a pack who hated him

as much as he hated them.

He dropped to all fours and kept running. His business casual outfit flew off him in

tatters. When sharp, crooked teeth popped out, he licked the blood from his lips. The

breeze tickled the bare patches through his fur, making him shiver.

“Alan, wait!”

The beast in him longed for her to shift, too, so he could roll her under him and make

her submit. Growl against her soft throat and brand her with his love bite. As if that

would ever happen.

Palmettos and thorny bushes ripped into him as he ran, drawing more blood. He

hated the town, the pack, and himself for being such a freak. Mostly, he hated her for

making him feel like a high-school failure all over again.

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Shelley hurtled through the thickets, batting branches away from her face as she

chased Alan. Someone needed to. He was so out of control, he might hurt himself.

Judging by the difficulty of his shift, she suspected he hadn’t done it in a while. She

pocketed the car key he’d dropped along the way.

The urge to shift overwhelmed her, too, pulling at her limbs. Her earlier fatigue

melted away. She hadn’t felt so alive since high school.

She stumbled over an exposed oak root and scraped her knee. It didn’t stop her long.

She had to catch her mate. Comfort him. Fix the horrible mistake she’d made in their

past.

After realizing the woods had grown silent, she stopped. No sign of his reddish-brown

fur anywhere. Where had he gone?
Don’t lose him again.
She should have included

instructions in her email to meet at his father’s house instead of the diner. Believing her

classmates had matured over the years had been a big mistake on her part. A sick parent

was enough stress for him to deal with.

Barbara’s condescending attitude hit her the hardest. They’d stayed best friends after

graduation, but tonight made it clear she hadn’t outgrown their old clique mentality.

The sound of a moan pricked her ears. In seconds, she found him and knelt by his

side. He was in human form again, naked as a jaybird, and covered with scratches. His

bottom lip and the area below bled where his fangs must have punctured it. Since wolves

were fast healers, the wounds turned to scabs before her eyes.

Scabs.
The teasing voices replayed in her head, making her cringe. No wonder he’d

moved away. Curtis had been the loudest among them. While she didn’t expect him to

welcome Alan with open arms after their brutal fight on prom night, he could have acted

more mature. Weren’t they all adults now?

She brushed her fingers across his forehead. “Are you all right?”

Unable to resist, she explored the trimmed beard, too. He definitely wasn’t a scruffy

kid anymore, and the latest version of him looked even sexier than the one she’d fallen

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in love with years ago.

“I’ll live.” He rose to a sitting position. “And I told you to leave me alone.”

“You’re tired and stressed,” she argued. “I’m not going anywhere until you’re dressed,

fed, and settled at your father’s cottage.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The note of teasing in his quiet voice shot a thrill through her body, out

to her fingertips.

He accepted her hand to help him stand. With his other, he covered a burgeoning

erection. A flush of heat crested inside her like a tidal wave. Although still a slender

man, his arms were heavier and more defined. So was his abdomen. Mercy. Her fingers

ached to explore each plane of his body.

“You must exercise a lot,” she blurted out. “I mean, not that I was looking.”

“Thanks.” He grinned and turned his head. “Working out at the gym helps keep my

anger level low.”

“I have some clothes in my truck,” she told him. “Your business outfit didn’t fit in

around here, anyway.”

She took a few steps toward the diner’s parking lot but stopped when he didn’t follow.

“I’d rather wear a tarp than Curtis’s clothes.”

So he knew they were still a couple.

“They’re not his. I have a whole bag full of clothing donations for the homeless shelter

in Palmetto. I would’ve dropped it off sooner, but I’ve been canning vegetables and

filling in at the diner since your dad’s been sick.”

Still covering his privates, he followed her. “Sounds as though you’re a pretty busy

lady.”

She shrugged. “I like to help out wherever I can.”

“You’ve changed.” His smile looked so sexy in the moonlight. The ends of his top

teeth were angled instead of straight across. The little imperfection hinted at the wolf in

him and gave him a boyish grin that stole her heart.

“Thank God for that,” she replied. “I couldn’t exactly make a career out of being a

shallow beauty queen.”

“But you could have been a model. You look tired.”

They stopped under a large oak tree. The moonlight filtering through the branches

seemed to cast a spell over them. She’d forgotten how magnetic his eyes were. Fringed

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by black lashes, the pools of dark chocolate looked through her and melted her heart at

the same time.

His unique scent, borne on the humid night air, wrapped around her and transported

her back to high school English class. In it, she smelled his traveling fatigue, anger from

the diner, raw arousal, and affinity. He was her mate. She’d suspected it in school, and

now the older, wiser woman—and the wolf—in her knew it as fact.

Unfortunately, the knowledge remained as inconvenient now as then. Alan hated the

pack and it hated him. Since the attack, the recovering Moonlight pack had interwoven

so deeply into her life, it would be impossible to separate the two. Curtis was as well.

Barbara, a handy seamstress, would probably sew her wedding dress. She wouldn’t be

too thrilled if Shelley told her she wanted Alan instead. It might even end their

friendship.

The breath halted in her lungs, too frozen to move in or out. Her gaze fastened onto

his full lips. She’d dreamed of kissing him since high school. How would their lives have

changed if she’d had the guts to do it back then? What if she did it now?

His sexy mouth parted. Hers did, too, so close she inhaled his warm, quick breaths. A

shiver of desire rippled through her, hardening her nipples.

He pointed, breaking the spell. “I see a light. We’re not far from the parking lot.”

Thank goodness he’d broken it. She belonged to another man, almost. As he walked,

he still covered his crotch with his hand. His erection had grown so large he could no

longer conceal all of it. Shelley swallowed, trying to ignore the hot cream making her

panties slide between her thighs as she walked.

Although his attraction to her appeared obvious, he’d made it clear he wanted to be

left alone. Her eyes stung because she’d probably never have the only man she’d ever

really wanted.

She had to tell him the truth about the prom, for the sake of her conscience if nothing

else. It didn’t matter whether he forgave her or not. After that, she’d figure out how to

tell Curtis she’d finally made up her mind about his proposal.

She couldn’t marry him. It wouldn’t be fair to him when she felt such a strong

attraction to someone else.

***

Inside the cab of Shelley’s bronze pickup truck, Alan put on a T-shirt and a pair of

worn jeans from her donation bag. They fit tight because they were too small. Not that it

mattered. She’d already witnessed his bare erection in the woods. God, he hadn’t been

that hard since he’d dreamed about her in high school.

The bed of the truck was full of rakes, shovels, and fruit and vegetable bins.

“You’ve got enough tools back there to supply food for the whole pack,” he

commented.

“I pretty much do,” she replied. “I bought a farm with money I inherited from my

daddy after he died in the attack. My mom and I do most of the work.”

Luckily, the other cars were already gone, giving them some privacy. He wiped his

knuckles across his mouth, grimacing at the sore scabs. He was Scabs again, all right.

Here he sat in Moonlight, Florida, feeling like the biggest failure who ever lived. His life

in northern Virginia might have been dull, but at least he’d felt worthwhile. Like a man.

No different than the others around him.

Despite his snaggly mouth, she’d looked ready to kiss him out there in the woods. The

moon must have played tricks on him. She’d never wanted him. He’d hoped she

would’ve grown up over the years, but the rest of the pack sure hadn’t. They’d acted like

a bunch of schoolyard bullies in the diner, and he’d let them push his buttons again.

Maybe he hadn’t grown up, either.

Did she need reassurance she remained sexy by getting every man she came across to

drool at her feet? She merely had to look in a mirror. Whatever game she played with

him now, he didn’t want any part of it.

He tipped his head and inhaled the air. Ever since their almost kiss, he’d gotten drunk

off her unique scent—one he’d remembered over the years. It reminded him of a sweet,

juicy orange. Inside the truck, it smelled stronger than it had been in the woods. The

arousal in it, rich as a slab of key lime pie, stood out as obvious as his erection.

Knowing he made her hot helped make up for his crappy reception in the diner, but

he had to focus on Dad. Miss Prom Queen wasn’t going to make a fool out of him a

second time.

“How is Dad?” he asked. “Tell me everything.”

“He’s weakened since the attack,” she said.

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“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” he demanded, more sharply than he intended.

“We were so busy trying to survive and build a new pack, we didn’t notice at first. It

started with him cutting corners at the diner. Coming in late. Closing early. Cooking

less. When we asked about his health, he got really defensive.” Her lips twisted in a wry

smile. “You know how he can be.”

“Ornery as hell,” he agreed.

“He collapsed in the middle of the breakfast shift earlier this week. We’ve been

helping out so we can keep the doors open. He tried to convince us it was nothing. That

he was just working too hard.”

Alan knotted his hands in his lap. Dad couldn’t die. He had the same mutation, but he

dealt with it a lot better, channeling the rage into a safe level of crabbiness. Knowing he

wasn’t the only person on Earth with the condition didn’t make Alan feel like such a

freak.

“I had a few bad feelings,” she admitted, “but I ignored them because he seemed so

confident. Damn it. Why didn’t I trust my intuition?”

“Hey, don’t blame yourself. Did you call a doctor?”

“Because Don’s a wolf, Derek thought it better not to.”

He frowned. “What does Derek have to do with it?”

“Didn’t I tell you? He’s our new Alpha. Hector died in the attack.”

And how many others? Alan shivered. The group in the diner tonight had been very

small.

“Anyway, it took time, but we found an expert who handles our kind.”

“Dad’s going to die, too, isn’t he?”

She reached over and covered his hand. “You know he’s two hundred years old.”

He swallowed, drowning in the sensations from her special touch. “I know.”

After she withdrew her hand, they sat in silence for a while. Strangely enough, it felt

like the most natural thing in the world. His breaths came slow and easy, and his limbs,

heavy and limp, sank into the seat. Being around her had always calmed him, especially