The Waning Moon Read online

  Isaac put his arm around me and pulled me close. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this “mate” talk, and I opened my mouth to dispute things. It was one thing to say I was his mate to appease an asshole wolf, but another thing completely to start introducing me that way regularly.

  “Candace, you look even lovelier than last time I saw you—something I didn’t think possible.” Isaac squeezed me even tighter, and I closed my mouth.

  “Your tongue is as smooth as always. Please, come inside,” Candace said. “I will have someone help you with your bags.”

  We followed Joseph and Candace inside.

  I bounced up and down on the bed and looked around the room. “You introduced me as your mate.”

  “Is that a problem?” Isaac asked.

  “I’m not your mate. I’m your girlfriend.”

  “It saves a lot of unnecessary hassles and protects you from unwanted advances.”

  “I don’t need that kind of protection.”

  “Shifter culture is different. An unattached female is fair game.”

  “I don’t care what shifters think about my availability. I’m the only one who gets to decide how available I am.”

  Isaac looked at me but didn’t quite meet my eyes. “Fine.”

  “Tell me about your friends?” I asked. I needed to assuage his pride without compromising myself.

  “Joseph and I met during the Great War, and although I didn’t spend much time with him after, we remained friends.”

  “Anything I should know about them or the Pride? I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth.”

  “Candace runs this Pride with an iron fist. There were about twenty-five members last I heard, but only four or five males. The rest of the Pride shares the males, but I don’t know if Candace shares Joseph. She’s possessive.”

  “Sounds like an interesting place.”

  Isaac kissed me, but before things heated up too much, someone knocked on the door.

  “Candace requests your presence in the library for drinks and hors d’oeuvres before dinner,” the servant said.

  “Do we need to dress for dinner?” Isaac asked.

  The man’s upper lip curled as he eyed our travel-stained jeans and t-shirts. “If you have something clean, it would not go amiss.”

  “We will be ready and appropriately attired in twenty minutes,” Isaac said.

  “Very good, sir.”

  “Where am I going to get appropriate attire? All I have is hiking clothes and blue jeans.”

  Isaac opened his duffel and pulled out a garment bag. He hung it in the closet and slowly unzipped it. In it were a suit—one of the sharpest I’d ever seen—and a dress. Calling it a dress didn’t do it justice—it was approaching gown territory. Isaac pulled two pairs of shoes from the bag and started stripping.

  “I feel like I should get an updo and a manicure to do this justice.” The sleeveless dress was emerald green chiffon with ruched bodice and a V-neck that dipped enough to be tantalizing, but not enough to be a potential wardrobe malfunction. The skirt ended above the knee and flared out delightfully. It was gorgeous. I took off my jeans and t-shirt and glanced over at Isaac when he made a noise. He was staring at me, naked lust in his eyes, and my knees went a bit weak.

  “Here.” He thrust a small bag at me. Inside were a strapless bra and the matching silk G-string. After replacing my underthings, freshening up with a sink wash in the bathroom, and pulling my hair up into a messy—but hopefully elegant—bun, I slid the dress over my head and had Isaac zip me up. A near-stranger stared back at from the full-length mirror. I’d gone from mildly attractive to sixties siren. I practiced my most alluring smile but succeeded only in looking like I had indigestion.

  I looked at the shoes for the first time. “Holy shit! Crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutins? These must have cost a fortune!”

  “I’m surprised you recognized them. I didn’t think you were much of a shoe person.”

  “I’ve watched the Oscars—and the red sole is distinctive. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have.”

  My feet slid easily into the shoes and waited for the anticipated wicked discomfort—a four-inch heel does not inspire the expectation of comfort. They weren’t bad, though. I wouldn’t want to wear them for hours, and not because they cost more than everything else I owned combined.

  Isaac pulled me towards him, and we looked at ourselves in the mirror. He looked amazing. From his black wingtips to his black suit—not even a subtle pinstripe to break it up—and his shirt was almost blindingly white. I touched the shirt—the material felt thick and rich and was nothing like the business casual shirts I was used to seeing. The only spot of color was his garnet-colored tie.

  “You look gorgeous,” I said.

  “Right back at you.”

  I gazed at our reflection until we were interrupted again by a knock. “If you’re ready, sir, madam.” The servant didn’t betray a flicker of surprise at how well we’d cleaned up, which was disappointing. He led us to the library where Florence waited. She, too, had dressed up in a floor-length, brilliantly blue off-the-shoulder gown. It flowed over her shape perfectly and sparkled here and there with randomly placed crystals.

  “Wow! Florence! You look fantastic. When did you guys go shopping? And why?”

  “It’s useful being a psychic. Most people think it’s all ‘the world is in danger’ or ‘a dark man is stalking you from the shadows,’ but there’s a fair amount of ‘bring an umbrella’ and ‘you’ll need a cocktail dress.’”

  “You’re awesome,” I said.

  “I know.” She smirked.

  Joseph and Candace arrived hand-in-hand, followed by a server bearing a tray of champagne cocktails. After everyone had a drink, Joseph got down to business.

  “Isaac, you and your people can stay for one night because we’ve been friends for a hundred years and my lady is generous, but you need to be straight with me. Why are you traveling with a mage and a Fae?” He made Fae sound like a dirty word. I opened my mouth to protest, but Isaac’s hand on my arm stilled me.

  “There are three reasons, and it is a long story. Would you like to hear it now, or wait until after dinner when we’ll have time to sit and digest both the sure-to-be-excellent meal as well as this tale?”

  “Let us talk only of light and bubbly things now,” Candace decided. “A champagne conversation to go with our champagne cocktails.”

  We discussed the local soccer rivalry between the Chicago Pack and the Chicago Pride. Not a mention of the strange events in Portland and the Black Hills. No speculation about the probability of terrorist attack versus solar flares. I knew little about soccer and even less about the local teams, so I tuned out. Something was up with Isaac. He was hiding something from me. I thought we’d taken care of all this nonsense when he’d told me about Emma and Michelle. My stomach knotted with nerves and I gulped my champagne to try to soothe my agitation. I set down the glass and turned back to the group in time to see Florence eying me with what looked like pity. I didn’t know if she was reading my thoughts, Isaac’s thoughts, or the future, but whatever she saw wasn’t good. The champagne I’d swallowed tried to make a reappearance and a line of sweat broke out on my hairline. She turned back to the others. Short of making a scene—which was not my style—there was nothing to do now. I took some deep, even breaths and attempted to slow my heart rate before the predators in the room noticed.

  There were a dozen people already in the dining room when our small group arrived.

  “Most of the pride lives in the neighborhood,” Candace explained. I sat next to her at one end of the table. Joseph and Isaac were at the other end, and Florence was about halfway down. “The only ones who stay at the house are pregnant females, females who are in heat, and the males they’ve chosen to mate with.”

  I tried to discern which of my fellow diners were pregnant and which were in heat. Other than the two women who looked to be approaching the end of their terms, there was no way to tell unless I starte
d asking questions, and I was savvy enough to know that was never a good idea.

  Dinner was delicious, but I couldn’t tell you after what we’d eaten. The wine flowed too freely to allow for stilted conversation, and I found myself babbling away to the woman seated next to me about coffee and beer. I was sober enough to guard my tongue when it came to more sensitive subjects, and when she poured me another glass of wine, batted her eyelashes at me winsomely, and asked if I had a sensitivity to iron, I was glad my metabolism worked as well as it did. I ignored the wine in favor of the glass of water in front of me and tried to catch Isaac’s eye.

  It looked like he and Joseph were arguing—which meant everyone in the room who was paying attention, except me with under-developed hearing, could hear them. I slowed my breathing and tried to hone in on Isaac’s voice, ignoring everything else.

  “...nothing more than a trap?” Isaac sounded angry.

  “It’s not like that,” Joseph replied. “You are my friend. I would never do anything to would harm you.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about.”

  “She is Fae. You said on the phone she was your mate, but you left out the part where she was Fae—the Fae we’re supposed to watch for. She’s blinded you, enthralled you. The mage is in league with her—or possibly another thrall. Can’t you see she’s using you? She’s certainly not beautiful enough to have caught your eye without magical aid.”

  I gasped out loud. Isaac looked across the room and caught my eye. He winked at me. It didn’t look like Joseph had noticed I was listening.

  “Joseph, my friend. I am not enthralled—at least not magically. The hold she has on me isn’t unnatural any more than the hold Candace has over you. And if you ever insult her again in my hearing, we will have more than words. I was assigned by my Alpha to watch her when we realized who she was and what she was going to do. The first time she saw me, she threw a knife at me. I’m one of the oldest wolves on this continent, and even though I was not at my best, she shouldn’t have been able to get a knife in me at all. If I hadn’t been quick—and if her knife had been silver—she would’ve killed me. It was a perfect heart shot.”

  “Dammit!” I said. “I can’t believe you let me think I’d missed all this time!”

  Conversation stopped, and everyone at the table turned to look at me. I blushed. Busted.

  Isaac laughed, and Joseph squirmed in his seat.

  Candace clapped her hands, commanding the attention of everyone in the room. “Joseph and I will have brandies with our guests in the drawing room. The rest of you will retire for the evening.”

  Chairs were scraped back, and the other diners slowly trickled out amid a buzz of conversation.

  I approached Isaac and Florence at the foot of the table.

  “Are we safe here?” I asked. I didn’t bother to whisper.

  “I don’t know,” he replied.

  “Of course you’re safe here,” Candace said. “We offered you shelter for the evening, and we won’t break hospitality. But come now; this is not a conversation to have in front of the help.”

  I shot a sympathetic look at the people clearing the table. I wasn’t impressed with people who weren’t polite to those they deemed inferior. Real character manifests in how well you treat those who have no recourse against you.

  In the drawing room, which didn’t appear to be a good room for drawing at all—there was only one tiny window—full brandy snifters awaited us. Candace shut the door, took a snifter, and then sat in the almost throne-like chair, leaving the rest of us to follow.

  “Tell us your tale now, Isaac,” Candace commanded. “I would hear how you came to be traveling with a mage and a Fae. We know who she is and what she’s been doing, and I want to know why I should let her go tomorrow.”

  I bit back a smirk. Candace obviously didn’t know everything about me if she thought she could hold me. Our room had a fucking balcony. I wouldn’t fly away and leave Florence and Isaac behind, but still. I could totally escape.

  Isaac took a long sip of his brandy before beginning his story.

  “Joseph, may I assume you’ve told Candace about Michelle?”

  “I have.”

  He took another sip and then began. “When I was finally freed from Michelle after the vampire currently known as Raj Allred took over her territory and the territory of all vampire clans in the Pacific Northwest, I was returned alive but damaged to Charles. Charles had been the Alpha in the greater Portland area since my disappearance, having been my second when I had that role. Even in my brief years of freedom in the sixties, he maintained the Alpha role because my damaged control wouldn’t serve me if I tried to reclaim my position.

  “Charles tried to help me with my control, but as I was still stronger, he was unable to do so. He couldn’t put a call out for a more powerful wolf to help me, because that would leave him vulnerable to a hostile takeover as any wolf strong enough to aid me would then, of course, be stronger than him. I spent most of my time alone in my house in the woods, close enough to draw on the pack’s control to aid my own during the full moon, but far enough away to let Charles maintain the fiction of his dominance.

  “Charles came to me when the local coven informed him the gates of magic keeping the Fae out of this world were weakening, and the first lock would break in Portland. He’d seen two Fae in the forest, looking for something not on any established trail. He wanted me to confront and take out these Fae.

  “I waited until Eleanor appeared alone. I’d made great pains to hide my scent so she couldn’t smell the wolf on me. Even though she was startled, she not only maintained her poise, she attacked. As you may have heard earlier, if I’d been any slower, her knife would’ve pierced my heart. It was steel, and the wound wouldn’t have been fatal, but it would’ve hurt like hell. I retreated and shifted at the edge of the clearing. After that encounter, I knew I could never kill her.

  “I watched. A few nights later, I followed her and her companion to a bar catering to supernaturals. Her companion was a regular attendee, but it was clear she’d never been there before.”

  I was startled. Finn hadn’t said he’d been there before, but he certainly let me believe it was his first time, too. I’d be asking Isaac a few questions later. I had a feeling the more I knew about Finn’s motivations, the better I’d be able to defend against whatever shit he sprung next.

  Isaac glossed over the back hallway shenanigans and told the rest of the gate opening story. There were no more surprises for me, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

  When Isaac concluded his tale—ending it with the warning that everything was about to change—both lions turned their gazes to me. I felt pinned for a second, and then remembered that although they were predators, no one was above me on the food chain. I pulled the dragon forward enough to feel the power course through my blood and smiled at them. Joseph looked away, but Candace did not. Interesting.

  “Now what? Will you send an assassin after me when we leave?”

  Candace ignored my questions. “What are your intentions? After you’ve destroyed the world, will you leash all shifters the way you’ve leashed your wolf? You must be powerful to have neutered him so thoroughly.”

  “My goal is to open the gates and allow magic to saturate the world again. There is only one shifter who holds my interest. He is free to stay or go as he wishes, and if he chooses to leave, I won’t stop him. I don’t know what to offer you that will appease you and not compromise my word. We will search for the third gate whether or not you approve. My question remains: will you send assassins after us tomorrow?”

  “I suggest you leave at first light. I will not have the balance of my world upset because some Fae upstart has delusions of glory. William will show you back to your rooms.” She pressed a button, and the door opened.

  Our guide from earlier was in the doorway. “This way, please.”

  Florence followed us into our room. “Candace was telling the truth. If we leave at first light, no
harm will come to us.”

  Chapter Three

  IT WAS TOO damn early the next morning when Isaac woke me up. I dressed blearily, wishing I could ring William for a cup of coffee. Less than a day with servants—and most of that asleep—had spoiled me. If I ever took the throne—something I still wasn’t sure was plausible or desirable—I’d exalt the royal coffee bringer above all others.

  We were dressed and ready to go way before first light. Florence was waiting in the hall, and William appeared at the end of the corridor.

  “Joseph would see you in the drawing room before you leave. I’ve taken the liberty of having fresh coffee prepared to sustain you on your journey.” William was definitely in the running for best servant of all time.

  I hadn’t been too excited to meet with ‘Mr. She’s Not That Good Looking,’ but for coffee, I’d make the sacrifice. Joseph was waiting by the single window. A coffee pot, cups, and a basket of scones were on the side table.

  I helped myself to a cup of coffee. The cups were way too small—who drank coffee out of something like these?—but the coffee was magnificent.

  I took another fortifying sip as Joseph began to speak.

  “Isaac, I can’t pretend to understand why you’re doing this, and I’m still suspicious of your Fae and the hold she has on you, but you and I have been friends for a century. If we forgot those ties every time one of us had a lapse in judgment, our friendship would’ve ended after the dance hall incident of 1917.” Isaac and Joseph laughed uproariously. I rolled my eyes.

  “Since we’re all besties again, what’s the deal with holding us up until sunrise?” I asked. “Are you supposed to make sure we’re still here at first light so your mate can attempt to have me killed?”

  “Of course not!” Joseph sounded outraged. I wasn’t buying it. “I wanted to say goodbye to my oldest friend, let him know I’d secured the vehicle he requested, and give him some advice on how to avoid Candace’s people.”

  “And you expect me to believe you’re here without Candace’s knowledge? I saw your relationship dynamic. You probably wouldn’t wipe your ass without a permission slip.”