Raven Moon (17 page)

Lightning lit the ground and in the flash, a metallic object from above the tree line headed toward him. He growled. A drone. The unmanned aerial vehicle was shaped like a glider but about the length of a small car. Something designed from a kit rather than military grade. After the Bane, all destructive military weapons had mysteriously vanished. The object stilled and hovered above him. Bloody fuck, it had an infrared camera.

Maddox dove into the foliage and ran down toward a creek. The water was ice cold, but it would hide his heat signature. He stilled as the purr of its soft engine drew closer. The drone hovered too high to bring it down in his normal wolf form, directing red light into the darkness.

Metal snapped in place as the drone lowered a small missile launcher.

Bloody hell! He leapt away as a rocket struck a nearby tree. The impact shook the earth and he pummeled to the ground. Stunned he shook his head and growled as it circled to hit its target again. He leapt into the bramble and shifted to his monstrous form. It hovered closer. He grabbed a large rock and threw it. A direct hit. The drone floundered, crashed and exploded.

His hackles rose, but he approached the crash site. There was nothing left but a fire and scorched earth. The flames drew the attention of a zombie swarm. They shuffled out of the brush and nearby homes. Twenty, maybe more. Not a real danger, since the survivors at Stonefield were well barricaded and had plenty of ammo and weapons.

He’d estimated he’d run about two miles away from the hospital. So much for venison. He’d better head back. He shifted to natural wolf form and ran.

As he approached, the guards and the others stood on the roof of several buses, battle ready. One man sat at the machine gun. A flood light beamed above Maddox. He hunkered down in the bramble, facing Rave’s room. He sensed her and looked up. Rave stood at the window and signaled him with a nod and thumbs-up.

Chapter 11

Boom! Rave jerked awake. Was it thunder? Men shouted to run to their stations. Something was up. Were they overrun by zombies or had the tankers returned with explosives to finish them off? And where the hell was Maddox? She rolled her eyes.
No, don’t tell me he’s in the woods flogging his sins away?
She stepped in front of her window and spotted the large white wolf hiding in the brush. She sighed in relief. What was he doing?

Maddox nudged his head out of the bush toward her. He lifted his snout toward the front of the hospital. Great! The entire camp was awake and conveniently right where he needed to get in. Bad boy left and now he can’t enter through the doggie door.
Okay, I read you. Distract the guards.
She gave him a thumbs-up and closed the curtains.

Rave looked down the hall. The coast was clear. In her rush to help Maddox, she’d forgotten she still wore the hospital gown.
Okay, I’m not going down there with my ass showing.
No time to dress. She dashed into his room and grabbed his large black shirt. This will do. She didn’t bother unbuttoning it as she pulled it over her slip of a gown. She ambled downstairs and out the glass entrance. “Hey, what was that?”

Mama Moxie, wearing red sweats, shrugged. “Some sort of explosion or maybe ball lighting. More likely, folks got caught up fighting a swarm.” She gave her a double take. “Where’s your fiancé?”

Rave rolled her eyes. “After drinking the six-pack, he’s snoring up a storm.”
I better pour out the other bottles before they notice, but first I have to make sure they don’t notice the big white wolf in the forest.

The doctor wore day clothes. He rubbed the back of his neck and his eyes twitched, looking nervous as hell. His smile wavered. “How’s your arm?”

“Not bad.” Maybe the doc caused the explosion. But why?

Randy turned to Mama Moxie. “Do you want me to take a team out?”

“Nah, the rule is they come to us not the other way around. Just keep watch for the undead.”

Rave asked, “When was the last time you had a confrontation with a swarm?”

Mama Moxie’s face darkened. “In the beginning, it was a constant battle. Lately, maybe once a month. Ted discovered the smell of zombie carcasses covers our scent, but once they see, or hear us nothing stops them.”

The dead greatly outnumbered the living. Yet, no zombie bodies littered the area. How could they have buried hundreds if not more zombies? Simple math dictated there was no way eleven men could do the job and still defend the hospital. Barricaded they may have remained protected but they were also trapped. Surrounded by thousands of hungry ghouls, they would have starved to death. No. They were definitely in touch with other survivors.

Time for a distraction so Maddox could sneak back in. It would be hard explain why he went on a walk, stark naked on a cold night with hungry zombies roaming around. She pointed in the opposite direction. “Zombies!”

One of the men turned the floodlights on and swept it across the area, while the others cocked their weapons and took aim.

Moxie grabbed Rave’s good arm. “Get inside.”

She wiggled away. “Hey.”
Don’t touch my feathers.

Randy put binoculars up to his eyes and searched. “There ain’t no zombies out there.”

Rave stood on her toes to look and frowned. “I could have sworn those small trees were zombies.” She pressed a hand over her heart and sighed. “Sorry, must have been my imagination.”

Mama Moxie scowled at a twenty something long-haired man. “Sam, turn off the lights.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ted sighed. “We should go back in.”

“I’m with you,” said Mama Moxie.

Rave walked inside with her and did her best to look sheepish. “Sorry.”

“I can’t say I blame you, better safe than overrun with zombies.” Mama Moxie jutted out her chin. “I never imagined your big man as a sound sleeper.”

“Like I said, too much beer.” Rave quickly went up the stairs and opened her door.

Maddox’s bare chest displayed his rock hard muscles. Thankfully, there were no self-inflicted penance lashes on his beautiful body. His hot body, not just eye candy but the entire candy store all in one package. If she were a she-wolf, she’d howl. Instead, she shivered a bird rouse. Rave wanted to scream in joy but remembered she was not team Benandanti. She whispered, “That was a close call.”

Maddox stared at her in longing then looked her up and down, taking in every inch of her. He gaped, showing hefty fangs. Any moment she would melt from his fierce gaze and beg him to take her. He finally pressed his lips tight and then sighed. “Thanks for the distraction.”

****

Maddox’s heart drummed. Rave swam in his large black shirt, looking adorable and damn it, she knew it, as evident in the gleam of her wicked purple eyes. Her scent, forever embedded in each thread of his shirt, reminding him of what he could never have. His wolf was tempted to rip the shirt off to devour her aroma. Why was his faith being tested at every corner?

Rave unbuttoned his shirt and his inner wolf slowly wagged his tail, his tongue lolling out. She handed it back and he snapped out of his wolfish stupor.

“Thanks, I didn’t want to run down to see what the commotion was all about with my ass showing.” She twisted around and parted her gown to make her point.

Holy Lord
. So round. With hotter than hell raven wing tattoos above her dimples. He grabbed the shirt and turned to button it, hoping she hadn’t noticed his bulging cock. “Perhaps you should dress.” He wanted to say,
next time wear your own clothes
.

Rave sat on her bed. “This late, no way, I’m going back to bed.” She cocked her head more like a raven than a person, reminding him again, of their deep schism. “What were you doing out there and what was that loud explosion?”

“This close to the full moon I must hunt.” He paced near the window. “I caught the scent of a deer and shifted to wolf form.” Mixing in the truth, without admitting he’d left to get his mind off her. “While I stalked my prey, a drone came from the southeast, spotted me and fired. It barely missed me. I shifted to a werewolf and destroyed it before it fired again. Unfortunately, the person behind the camera must have seen me.”

Rave furrowed her brow. “Drone? I heard of survivors building them to spot or destroy zombies but why would it shoot at a wolf unless…”

Maddox finished her sentence. “It was the Kindred.” Despite the zombie apocalypse, the werewolf hunters had an intricate infrastructure to create such a devise. That and chimpanzombies to use as a biological weapon.

No longer a flirtatious tart, Rave went in to military mode. “How sophisticated was it?”

“Not military quality, but sophisticated enough.”

“Did you get their scent?”

“No. They must have used gleipnir powder to mask the drone’s metallic odor. Fortunately, the low buzzing sound gave it away.”

“How do they know you are trailing them or even in Texas?”

Maddox narrowed suspicious eyes at her. “Good question.”

Rave jerked back. “Hey, whoa. We ravens don’t have a beef with the Kindred, but trust me we are the werewolves’ biggest allies.”

“Not all ravens side with the werewolves.”

“I do and so does my ancestral murder, I mean clan.” She blew out a noisy breath. “It’s not my fault Eastern European ravens helped the Kindred. Talk about being the bird brains of our kind.”

His muscles tensed and his skin flushed. “But you side with the pagan pack!” The Arbor pack was at war with his pack. During last year’s Consortium meeting, Dirk and the other werewolves noticed his attraction to Ravenna. Had they used her as bait to eliminate his pack’s top warrior? Hard as it was to imagine Dirk, a fellow hunter, betraying him to the Kindred. Then again, his witch wife might have bewitched him to go against pack code.

Rave snorted. “We always have.”

Maddox ran a hand through his hair. “Nonetheless, you and your men were in San Antonio at the same time as the Kindred.”

“Total coincidence. Trust me, if we’d known you were there we would have taken flight and returned later. Anyway we missed the Kindred by a day.”

He stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes. “So you say.”

Rave stood tall, typical of birds threatening their enemy, and alpha raven that she was, she met his eyes. Without fear, but condemnation. “Why should I bother working with the Kindred? If I wanted you dead, I would have done it myself with a silver-tipped arrow embedded through your heart.”

“Breaking your arm thwarted your plans.”

“Well it’s nearly healed so I’d watch your step, Benandanti lap dog.”

Lap dog?
He went partial werewolf with extended claws and fangs. He growled. “I assure you I will watch my step, trickster.”

Not frazzled by his bulk the petite haughty raven grabbed an empty beer bottle and threw it at him. He ducked as it whistled by and smashed into the door. Her bewitching purple eyes smoldered like glowing daggers and she pointed to the door. “Get out!”

That was his cue, never see her again but his wolf took control. An alpha wolf delighted to meet the challenge of the alpha raven. The obsession that haunted his dreams and drove his hunger for her was unstoppable. He knocked a lamp between them to the floor and drew her in. One clawed hand captured her delectable bottom and raised her up to meet his gaze. Rave gaped at him, as surprised by his hold as he was. Her full lips quivered. He retracted his canines and engulfed her mouth, mindlessly kissing her as he kneaded the soft flesh of her round arse. She moaned and tongued him with equal passion. Millennia of hatred and suspicion dissolved as he claimed her sensual mouth with passionate sinful fervor.

Rave gripped his hair and with a ravenous appetite, French kissed him with the expertise of a slut. His mood darkened. She’d had others. How many? His canines threatened to emerge in the wolf’s need to mark her as his and no one else’s. A growl escaped as he fed from the intoxicating nectar of her mouth and he crashed into a metallic tray as he stepped closer toward the bed.

A bang on the door startled them from their forbidden kiss. “Everything okay?” asked Randy. He knocked again and shouted. “Open the door!”

Maddox broke out of his trance and released her. He set her down on her bed. His wolf snarled eager to rip the man’s throat for daring to interrupt its claim. However, his guilt ridden God-fearing human soul was grateful for the interruption. He took in a breath and spoke behind the door. “No worries, I accidently knocked a lamp down.”

The locked doorknob rattled. “Cuz, it sounded more like a brawl,” said Randy. “Now open the door.”

Rave rolled her eyes. “Duh, you idiot, we were shagging.”

“Huh?”

Maddox shot her a glare and opened the door. Randy along with another big redneck stepped in. He looked Rave over. “Not hurt, ma’am?”

Rave put her hand on her gown to keep the slip closed. Maddox, however, caught a glimpse. She bled from his claw scratch. She blushed, more out of anger than embarrassment and snapped, “I take it you never heard of the phrase, ‘get a room’. It means we are in a room to fuck all night.”

Maddox barked at her, “That’s not what we were doing!”

The men exchanged looks and burst out laughing. Randy stopped and winked at him. “We figured that much, but Mama Moxie ordered us up here.”

Rave glared at them. “Next time we’ll invite you but tickets aren’t cheap.”

Maddox considered snapping their necks but instead gave them a hard squint. “Why does Mama Moxie care?”

“She just doesn’t want the little lady hurt.”

“Tell her to mind her own business,” said Rave. She muttered, “I think she’s in need of some action herself.”

Maddox crossed his arms, towering over the two men, who immediately lowered their gaze, as if their subconscious recognized the alpha werewolf could rip out their throats in an instant. Randy shuffled his feet. “Like I said, it wasn’t our idea to bother you none.”

They left and Maddox slammed the door so hard, its frame shook. He sighed and returned his attention to Rave. Her hair in disarray, she paled back to her normal completion. He’d allowed his beast to hurt her. His chest tightened. “I’m sorry, I hurt you.”

Rave threw him a wicked smile and twisted to look at her bum. “I think it’s cooler than a tat.”