Page 21 of Broken Moon

When it was over—in less than aminute—the two of them were spouting blood from their broken noses and swollenlips, and one of them knelt on the ground, shaking his bruised head while theother…well, the other began to do something that made me drop the baton andreach for my silver blade.

He began to shift.

Hurt, enraged, humiliatedwolves were hard to reason with, and he wasn’t going to be thinking with hishuman brain. He would try to kill me.

But then the alpha was there,and all of our anger combined was no match for his.

I’d grown unaccustomed to awolf pack’s violence in my twelve years away. And even as my two attackerscaught sight of the alpha and found the sense they’d apparently lost when I’darrived, my own rage melted away. Jared Walker was…terrifying.

Wolves gathered, some of themunable to control their shifts as their alpha’s fury touched them, rushingthrough the crowd like an emotional, uncontrollable wind.

The beta—Eli—was suddenly at myside. He took my arm. “Come away, Ms. Silver,” he said. “You’ll want to go onwith your job.” He didn’t have to convince me. He jogged at my side as we leftthe street and headed for the woods.

Still, the sounds of the furiousalpha disciplining his recalcitrant wolves continued to follow me long afterI’d found the sweet silence of the woods.

Chapter Ten

The beta led me to the pack’sseer, Lennon. She stood in the woods, dressed in black leather, her long, redhair waving gently in a nonexistent wind. Her eyes, when she turned to watch meapproach, were starkly green and vividly contrasted against the flawless ivory ofher skin, and though I’d seen pictures of her before, her stunning beauty inperson was…well, stunning.

“Wow,” I whispered, as Eli andI approached her, causing him to chuckle.

I wasn’t sure why she’d wantedto meet with me in the dangerous woods instead of behind the relative safety offour walls, but when I’d walked into the alpha’s office and no seer had been inattendance, Jared had informed me she was waiting for me in the woods.

I’d lifted my eyebrows. “I’mshocked you’d allow one of your people in the woods right now.”

He’d given me a wry smile. “Theseer does as she pleases.”

I’d only shrugged, but I wasslightly intrigued by a wolf who wouldn’t be bossed around by her alpha. ThoughI was sure if he’d seriously commanded her to do something, she would have doneit. It was the wolf pack way.

“With Lennon, I pick mybattles,” he’d said, as though he’d plucked my thoughts from my head.

I would have thought keepingone of his people safe from whatever was roaming these woods would have been abattle worth fighting, but he knew what he was doing. I was also surprised thathe’d cared to explain himself to me.

When I stood in front of her,we simply stared at each other. I didn’t offer my hand or open my mouth as wetook each other’s measure. One had to be careful with seers. An uninvited touchcould lead to dangerous things—for both parties. I’d once seen my own pack’sseer experience a violent seizure when someone had grabbed her hand, and I’dseen a pack member knocked out for two days after an unintentional touch. He’dawakened with no memory of the previous year.

It wasn’t uncommon for a seerto see the deep dark secrets inside a person she touched, and that had gotten awolf banned before. And worse.

So I didn’t touch her, andwhile I patiently waited for her inspection, I made sure my own walls were highand strong. Just in case.

At last, her features softenedand she leaned toward me, her lips tilting in a small smile. She started tospeak, then darted her eyes to the beta. “Eli,” she said sharply, and though hesighed, he moved a few yards away.

“He’s a nosy beta,” shemurmured. “And I never allow my business to be carried back to the alpha unlessI want it to be.” She held out her hand. “Don’t worry,” she said, when Ihesitated, “I’m well secured. It will hurt neither of us.”

I refused to be afraid of theGray Shadow seer. I was stronger than that, and I was well secured against atouch as well. I took her hand.

And it didn’t matter how securewe’d thought we were against that handshake, that first touched kicked both ourasses.

Eli came loping toward us,ready to defend his seer against me, but Lennon managed finally to jerkfree—God knew I couldn’t find the strength—and Eli was there to catch her whenshe reeled backward.

In the back of my mind was thecold realization that Jared’s beta was in love with the seer. It was said thatseers could never love. Their heads and hearts were too full of their visionsand knowledge, and they didn’t see romantic love the way others did.

Too bad for Eli.

“What is she,” Lennonwhispered, and I wasn’t sure she was exactly present in the moment. Finally,she focused on me and pulled away from the beta. She didn’t offer me her handagain, and I was betting she probably never would.

Her eyes held somethingstrange, something I couldn’t parse, but her voice was full of pity and sorrowwhen she spoke again. “The wolf’s screams and torment,” she murmured. “How doyou bear it?”

“I’ve grown used to it,” I toldher, smiling grimly, though I really didn’t want to. “You’d be surprised at thekind of agony you can bear when your only other choice is death.”