Blue Moon ns-1 Read online

  I didn’t know if I loved Cadotte, but I’d give it a shot. I’d be a lot less embarrassed to profess true love to a wolf than a human anyway. If my love was true, I guess we’d both win.

  I used my cell phone to contact Brad. He was an idiot, but he was my idiot. Brad was as loyal as a Labrador retriever and only half as stupid. If I told him to watch Mandenauer like a hawk, he would. If I told him to protect the old man with his life, he’d do that, too.

  Ten minutes later, Brad arrived. I explained the basics: Mandenauer had been shot; I wasn’t sure by who, so I wanted him protected.

  "I’m going to check out a few leads," I said, and left the two of them together.

  I headed for the emergency room exit at the back of the clinic. I planned to find Will and test Dr. Hanover’s theories.

  Since it was after midnight in a small northern town, the parking lot was deserted. A few cars, most likely belonging to employees, butted up against the bank of trees that made a half-circle at the back of the clinic.

  Beneath the bright and shiny moon, the hood of my car sparked silver shreds of light into my eyes. Which was my only excuse for not seeing the huge black wolf until he growled at me.

  My hand went to my gun. The wolf was between me and my car, where I’d left my rifle. And I’d called Brad stupid. Although at this range I shouldn’t need anything stronger than my pistol.

  I stared at the wolf. God, he was huge. I’d never seen one bigger. I recalled reading somewhere that black wolves were the largest. The zoologists couldn’t figure out why.

  I tightened my fingers around my gun. The wolf snarled.

  "Smarter than you look, aren’t you?" I murmured.

  The wolf cocked his head like a dog. The eyes nearly blended into the fur—black pupils, dark brown irises, a little bit of white at the edges. This was the same wolf I’d seen that first night with Mandenauer.

  "William Cadotte," I said.

  The animal’s lip curled and a low, vicious rumble came from his chest. The hair on the back of my neck tingled.

  "That went well."

  Either the wolf wasn’t Cadotte or the name thing didn’t work. I’d have to tell Elise. If I lived.

  I’d gone this far. I took a deep breath. "I love you, Will."

  The wolf stopped snarling and tilted his head in the other direction. Sadly, he remained a wolf.

  Either the animal wasn’t Cadotte or my love wasn’t true. I was back to square one.

  Now what?

  We could stand here staring at each other all night. I could shoot him, just for fun. I could let him bite or kill me. None of those options was very appealing.

  My radio crackled and the wolf jumped straight up in the air. "Nervous?" I asked.

  He lifted his lip in a silent snarl, or maybe a sneer, then sat down again.

  "Three Adam One, where the hell are you?"

  The way Zee was behaving lately, you’d think I was MIA every minute of my shift.

  I reached for my radio with my left hand. It was times like these when I wished Miniwa had the tax base to afford shoulder mikes.

  "I’m outside the clinic. I’ve got a little situation here."

  "What kind of situation?"

  "Big black nasty wolf doesn’t want to let me leave."

  Silence met my declaration. The doors swished open behind me and voices swept out ahead of the young couple.

  "Stay back!" I shouted.

  They did, and so did the wolf. But the woman shrieked—an ear-piercing sound that made me blink on a wince. In that split second, the wolf disappeared. I was left standing in the parking lot, gun drawn and trained on thin air.

  I turned to the couple but kept my eyes peeled and my gun ready. "He’s gone. You can stop screaming now."

  As if I’d pressed a button, she shut off.

  "Who’s gone?" the man asked.

  "The wolf."

  "What wolf?"

  "You didn’t see him?" I glanced at the trees, saw nothing, and reluctantly holstered my weapon. "Then what was she yammering about?"

  The woman’s bottom lip puffed out. She sniffed and turned away.

  "I think the gun might have upset her, ma’am."

  "Oh. Uh, well, carry on."

  They hadn’t seen the wolf. How could they have missed him? I knew he had been there. I wasn’t delusional. I watched them get in their car and drive away.

  Crackle. Pop. Zee was back.

  "I’m here."

  "Did you get rid of the wolf?"

  "He ran off."

  "Good. Clyde wants to know if you ever found that missing evidence."

  I crossed the parking lot, watching every corner, twitching at every shadow. After climbing into my car, I locked all the doors. The wolf might lack the opposable thumbs necessary to open the doors, and then again he might not.

  "Let me talk to him."

  "Have you looked at your watch? Right now he’s probably glued to TBS. It’s all Clint, all night."

  "Must have missed that."

  I sat in my car and thought awhile before I answered Zee’s question in regard to the evidence. "Trust no one," Mandenauer had said. And though I hated to continue lying to my best friend and my colleagues, in this instance I’d just have to do it anyway.

  "Jessie?" Zee prompted.

  "No," I said as 1 rolled the totem between my ringers. "I never found anything."

  She cursed, low and quite viciously, even for her.

  "Sheesh, lighten up. It’s not your ass."

  "1 know. I’m just sick of hearing him bitch. Get over it already."

  I had to agree. I spent the rest of the night trolling the town, the highway, the woods. I even went back to Cadotte’s, but he wasn’t there. That made me more nervous than anything. Where in hell had he gone in the middle of the night?

  When morning came, I returned to the clinic and drove Mandenauer home. He was still tired, but he’d be all right.

  "Get some rest, Jessie." He collapsed onto the ancient stained couch in the cottage. "We win or we lose tonight."

  "But how can they perform the ceremony without the totem? Haven’t we already won?"

  "I do not know. Perhaps they will find another totem."

  "How?"

  "If I knew, then I could prevent them from doing so. But how they got the first one is a mystery."

  "Swell," I muttered.

  "Since blue moons are few and far between, for the most part, I doubt whoever is behind this will let something so small as a missing item keep them from becoming."

  I pulled the totem from beneath my shirt. "Maybe we should destroy this?"

  He lifted a brow. "Maybe we should."

  "Got a hammer?"

  "In the kitchen."

  I found the tool and came back. After placing the icon on the floor, I lifted the hammer and hit the thing as hard as I could. The blow reverberated up my arms. I peered at the stone.

  There wasn’t a mark on it.

  "That’s impossible," I muttered.

  Mandenauer sighed. "More impossible than humans becoming wolves?"

  He had me there. "What next?"

  "Fire won’t melt rocks—or at least any fire we can produce."

  "I could throw it into the lake."

  "You could. But I’ve seen mystical items float right back to the surface. What if the one who wants the totem the most finds it?"

  "I could bury the thing."

  "It could pop out of the ground like a zombie."

  "Zombie? Are you serious?"

  "You’d be amazed at the things I have seen." He shook his head. "Perhaps Elise will discover some way to use the icon against them. Then we will need it, yes?"

  I shrugged and dropped the stone back down the front of my shirt. Being unable to destroy the thing had creeped me out more than I wanted to admit.

  What was the totem made of? Moon rock? Had it been forged in hellfire? I didn’t want to know.

  The icon shifted between my breasts and I shuddered, then s
lapped my hand over it. "Stop that," I muttered.

  Mandenauer coughed. I blushed. I’d come a long way from believing in nothing I couldn’t see, hear, or touch to talking to stones and telling wolves that I loved them.

  "Do you need help getting into bed?" I asked.

  "Not since I was two." He rose, swayed, then glared when I would have grabbed his elbow.

  I lifted my hands in a gesture of surrender. "Fall on your face. See if I care."

  "Ah, Jessie, you are so good to me."

  I left him in bed with a high-powered rifle and a laser scope, which was the most action he got at his age.

  Chapter 34

  I slept with a pistol and a rifle. Probably the most action I’d be seeing for years at the rate I was going. This time tomorrow night, I could be minus one… what?

  Boyfriend? Lover? Really cute guy who made me scream? Hell, I could be minus a limb, my sanity, or my life. Better get my priorities in order.

  As soon as I walked into the apartment, I glanced at my machine. The message light was blinking.

  "Dammit, Jessie. Where are you?"

  Cadotte sounded seriously pissed. Had he realized I’d read his notes, seen his book, knew he’d lied? Or was he just mad he hadn’t gotten a little early-evening delight?

  I set traps in front of the picture window, the door, hell, every window. I didn’t plan on being surprised by any furry friends, or enemies. I had to sleep today, or I’d be no good at all tonight. Nevertheless, I awoke in the heat of midday and knew I wasn’t alone.

  I’m not sure what woke me. The mousetraps by the windows? The bells on the front door? The marbles in front of the balcony entrance?

  None of the above or all three? I heard nothing now. But I felt someone. I crept out of bed, taking along both guns for company.

  Barefoot and in my underwear, I checked every room, every closet. Not a single trap, bell, or marble was out of place. I was losing my mind.

  When I glanced out the picture window, the bright light of midday hit my eyes and made my head ache. When I turned around, I saw stars. When the stars went away, I saw him.

  I cocked my pistol. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall in the hall. His earring swung merrily as he tilted his head. "Are we back to this again?"

  "How did you get in here?"

  "It wasn’t easy."

  "Get out."

  He started to walk toward me. My heart sped up.

  "I mean it, Cadotte!"

  The gun shook. I lost the rifle so I could steady the pistol with both hands. He laughed. "Got silver bullets in there?"

  "I’ve been packing silver since I met you, Slick."

  He stopped a foot away, blinked, snorted. "Good girl. You may need it."

  "Have you come to finish the job?"

  "I thought I finished pretty well." He wiggled his brows.

  Cadotte was behaving oddly for a man who’d tried to murder me a few hours back. He didn’t have any weapons that I could see. Of course he could strangle me with his bare hands, if I let him get close enough.

  "You know damn well I meant finish me off. Kill me. Murder me. Dump my body somewhere it’ll never be found."

  His mouth fell open. "What?"

  "Someone shot a crossbow at me."

  His gaze drifted over my body. "You seem all right."

  "I’m fine. Mandenauer isn’t."

  His eyes snapped back to my face. "Dead?"

  "Is that what you’d like?"

  "I don’t even know the man. Why would you think I’d try to kill you with a crossbow? I could have done pretty much anything I wanted to you at my place."

  And had. My cheeks warmed.

  "You’ve got a crossbow."

  "Me and about a hundred other guys."

  "What’s it for?"

  "My grandfather. It’s a gift." He threw up his hands. "If I’m a werewolf, I don’t need a damn crossbow to kill you. Why would I be that stupid?"

  He had a point.

  Cadotte took one huge step and grabbed the barrel of the gun. God, he was fast. I held on tight, figuring he’d wrench the thing out of my grip. Instead, he put the business end to his chest.

  "Shoot me. See what happens."

  "Have you lost your mind?"

  "Yes. I love you, Jessie. I’d rather die than have you look at me as if you think I’m going to hurt you."

  As declarations go, it was pretty impressive, I never thought a man would tell me he loved me. Especially one like this.

  Of course my skeptical mind whispered: Is he telling you he loves you because you told him ? When he was a big black hairy wolf?

  Did it matter? My chest ached. My eyes burned. No one had ever said they loved me before, not even my mother. Suddenly I understood why people did anything for love.

  I eased my finger from the trigger. I’d rather die than be the one to kill him. Even if he was a werewolf… I couldn’t do it.

  The pistol was too heavy to hold any longer. I let it fall back to my side, then placed the weapon on the couch. Cadotte pulled me into his arms, buried his face in my hair. "I missed you."

  He smelled like the wind and the night, the forest. When I was in his arms, everything I believed became jumbled and confused. I could only think of touching him skin to skin, of feeling him move inside me, of letting him make me forget who he was or what he might be.

  I pulled his T-shirt from his jeans, slipped my fingers beneath, spread my palms across his back, his shoulders. He had the most beautiful skin, smooth planes, hard muscles. I could touch him forever and never grow tired of the game.

  He stepped back and drew the shirt over his head. I became fascinated with the ripples across his stomach and chest. I wanted to taste his skin while his muscles danced against my lips.

  I dropped to my knees and did what I’d only dreamed of, placing openmouthed kisses across his hard, supple belly, sucking his flesh between my teeth, laving my tongue over the curve of his navel. He groaned and forked his fingers into my hair, pulling me closer, showing me he liked my fantasy as much as I did.

  His erection pressed against my chest. The rasp of his jeans across my nipples, covered only by an old, thin T-shirt, was as arousing as his hands or his mouth.

  Suddenly he slid to the floor and crushed his face to my breasts, filling his hands with me. It was my turn to thread my fingers through his hair and press him ever closer.

  His earring dragged across one tight nipple as his mouth closed on the other. For a minute I wished he had long hair and that he would swish the tresses all over my body.

  The thought was soon gone when he ripped my T-shirt down the center. My breasts spilled free, and he moaned as if he’d been given a gift.

  "Hey!" I protested.

  "I’ll buy you another. I’ll buy you a hundred. With lace. Red, blue, purple."

  The words were muffled against my skin. The puff of his breath against me made my hands clench on his shoulders. I wanted to say something sarcastic about me in purple lace, but I couldn’t quite manage it.

  "That shirt was old anyway."

  "And ugly. You should wear silk, Jessie. As soft as your skin right here." He placed a gentle, sweet kiss at the curve of my hip and I shivered, then smoothed my palms over his biceps.

  No man had ever spoken this way to me. Hell, in my experience men didn’t do much chatting during sex. Mostly, "oh, yeah," or, "right there." Cadotte seemed to like to talk nearly as much as he liked—

  His hand slipped into my panties and stroked me. "Oh, yeah," I muttered. "Right there."

  "How about right here, right now?"

  My answer was to slip the button from his jeans and slide the zipper down. My hand followed. Heated, hard skin met my palm.

  "Do you even own underwear?"

  "What for?"

  He lost his shoes and his jeans, fumbling a bit in the pocket for a condom. I thanked my lucky stars he’d remembered, because I continued to forget a lot of things. And the whole puppy issue ju
st wasn’t funny anymore.

  He covered himself and tossed the empty package to the floor. My underwear soon followed. He thrust into me just as he had in the pond; one smooth stroke and he was all the way home.

  I expected him to be wild, rough, fast. I wouldn’t have minded. I wanted to forget that this could be the last time we were together. I imagined the blue moon hovering just below the horizon, waiting to pounce. Neither one of us knew what would happen tomorrow—if there’d even be a tomorrow.

  I’d never done it on the floor. The men I’d known hadn’t ever been so anxious to have me they couldn’t wait awhile. I discovered the idea that he needed me, now, was as arousing as his mouth at my breast and his body within mine.

  Instead of desperation and frantic need, a pounding, pulsing coupling, he gave me love. His kiss was sweet and gentle as he traced his lips across my cheekbone to the corner of my eye. His breath a breeze that ruffled my hair, I sighed and he drank me in.

  The pace slowed. His hands almost reverent as they soothed and aroused, I wanted to crawl inside of him and stay there forever.

  "‘You feel so good," he murmured against my neck.

  I ran my hands down his back, rocked my hips, and took him as deep as I dared. He quivered, then stilled.

  "Look at me, Jessie."

  I couldn’t focus on what he wanted until he kissed me, then took my lower lip between his teeth and tugged.

  My eyes popped open. He was so close I could see where the black of his pupil and the dark brown of his iris met. For an instant I was staring into the eyes of the black wolf, and I stiffened.

  "Hush." He kissed the corner of my mouth. "I love you, Jessie. I’d never hurt you."

  He punctuated every other word with a slow slide and firm thrust of his body into mine. All I could do was nod and clutch him tighter.

  Taking my hands, he placed palm against palm, clenching our fingers together. I felt him growing inside of me, pulsing, coming.

  "Come for me," he whispered. "I want to go there together."

  My attention drifted lower, to where our bodies joined. My eyes fluttered closed. He stopped moving.

  "Look at me," he demanded. "See me. Please."

  I frowned and opened my eyes. His expression was so sad, I wanted to touch his face, but he wouldn’t free my hands. I lifted my mouth inviting his, and he kissed me, long, deep, wet, while he remained buried inside.