Page 23 of Broken Moon

Chapter Eleven

I put everything else from mymind and went into hunter mode. Distractions could get me eaten, and not in agood way.

Lennon had felt it like a cold,dark wind, and she wasn’t the only one. I shivered in my thin coat, and thatwas saying a lot since wolves didn’t feel the cold like most people. We ranhot. But the icy cold of the thing sucking the life from the wolves wasinsidious, and it was fuckingcold.

I held my powerful demon bladein my right hand as I slipped through the woods, closer and closer to thecreature. I knew I was getting closer because the coldness inside meintensified. I wondered if he was watching me, if he’d caught my scent and knewI hunted him, or if he’d just arrived in the woods and had yet to realize.

Did he go back and forthbetween his world and mine, or was he stuck here? I’d be happy to give him ashove back into his world, if so. I slipped from tree to tree, glad the moonwas bright enough to light my way, and also glad it was not a full moon. Icouldn’t hunt when there was a full moon, because the pain took over mythoughts. My instincts were off and my reaction time slow. Although Ihadtakenout the demon boss during a full moon, so…

“Empty your mind, Kait,” Iwhispered.

I stood motionless against ahuge tree, letting the seconds tick by as I waited. My eagerness to capture thecreature I stalked was squeezing my heart, easily overwhelming my fear.Supernatural beings were susceptible to so much, and I had everything I neededin loops and pockets and sheaths all over my body. Everything else I needed wasinside me. I had nothing to fear.

But when something warm pushedagainst my arm, I very nearly wet my pants. I whirled, blade up, then froze asI saw that a wolf had somehow managed to sneak up on me.

Not justa wolf,though.

The alpha had shifted and cometo join me, and I was no longer going to face down a mysterious killer alone.My heart leaped, and I was almost ashamed of how delighted I was by hispresence.

He was…enormous. His musclesbunched beneath his thick, glossy gray and white pelt, and his eyes werealready familiar to me. The same light, icy blue surrounded by a ring of darkerblue, fierce and piercing and full of command.

I wanted so badly to touch himthat my hands shook, but I forced myself to be contented with a nod ofacknowledgment. He was there because he wanted to bait the creature, notbecause he wanted to be with me.

His warm and spicy scent, thescent that would let every wolf he met know that he was alpha, slid into mybrain and made my mind silently yellthis is my alpha. Mine!and I dugmy nails into my palm to calm myself.

I had a killer to hunt. Therewas no room for emotions and yearnings and temptations.

In the next second, while I wasstill reeling over my reaction to him, he gathered his legs beneath him andshot from behind the tree and into the open, and it took everything I had toremain where I was.

If the killer dared showhimself to such a powerful wolf, then I would be ready to attack him when hedid.

The big wolf stretched his bodylow to the ground, his deep growls making my skin erupt in gooseflesh and mystomach tighten as I watched him. I didn’t think I’d ever seen such a beautifulpicture as that wild, sleek wolf preparing to attack an unseen enemy. Themoonlight bathed the clearing in a gentle glow, and the naked fingers of thin,empty tree branches reached longingly for the mysterious sweet light.

The vibration of my cellphonejerked me out of my fanciful and dangerous distraction, and I began to wish thealpha had not joined me. I couldn’t concentrate. I was going to be slow andmuddled and get us both killed. I didn’t care who was calling and certainlywasn’t going to check. There’d be time to check calls once I’d survived thesupernat in these woods.

The alpha lifted his nose tothe sky and howled and I moaned as my body contorted with muscle contractionsand the need to answer that howl with one of my own. God, but it hurt. It hurtmy heart, my mind, my body.

Soon.

I saw the dark shadow evenbefore the alpha did, and though part of me wanted to stand there frozen inshock, I didn’t even hesitate. The killer wanted the alpha, and I wasn’t aboutto let that happen.

I shot from the concealment ofthe trees and raced across the ground, fast, so fast. I held the blade in myhand, my arms pumping, my breath exploding from my lungs. I ran toward theblack shadow that abruptly stepped into the moonlight, and then, I saw thekiller.

The wolf raced toward him aswell. I saw the gray and white blur of him from my peripheral vision, and bythe time I realized I needed to warn him off, to make him shift back before itwas too late…

It was too late.

Jared caught the monster’sattention, and it was almost like I wasn’t even there. I had a moment to seethe wolf stopped in his tracks and lifted into the air by an invisible power,and all I could think was, “I’ve got to save his life.”

I didn’t think about the risksand I certainly didn’t have a plan. My only plan had been to explore the woodsto see if I could pick up some tracks or signs or anything that might help mefigure out what the supernatural was. But no. Here he was, trying to suck thelife from the alpha, and my only plan was to stop him however I could.

Because in my mind, Jared wasalready my alpha, and like any good wolf, I would give my life for him.

The killer was a tall, dark,winged creature, a type I’d never seen before. As I watched, it flew into theair and floated there, its mouth wide and full of discolored teeth, and thoughit was at least five yards from the alpha, its reach was long. The alpha,frozen in midair, was stiff and still and currently having his essence suckedfrom inside him.

He was dying.

I flung my blade as I ran,flung it hard and viciously and with deadly aim, and even as it hurtled throughthe air and sank into the creature’s chest, I missed the feel of it in my hand.Iwouldget that blade back.