Page 33 of Broken Moon

“Ms. Silver,” the mayor’s wifesaid. “Please. Please. Tell me he’s in there. Tell me he’s okay.”

I felt a presence and looked up,and finally, I saw Jim. He stood across the street, his hand raised, smiling.He nodded.

“Yes,” I whispered. “He’salive, Mrs. Hedrick.” No way in hell was I going to say he was okay. “LittleNoah is alive, and they are bringing him to you now.” Gently, I pulled away.“Look.”

They jerked around to face thealley, and just as they did, Detective Moreno rushed from the shadows,surrounded by cops. Not all of them. Some of them were still in that house. Butmost important of all, Moreno carried a small boy.

“Noah,” Amy Hedrick screamed.

I watched, barely able tobreathe as the mayor and his wife snatched their child from the detective, andI knew they would never, ever let him go again.

And then it seemed like the worldlit up, full of noise and hope and light as dawn came to chase away thedarkness and to witness a perfect and miraculous reunion.

ChapterSixteen

Wolves were nocturnal, and wedid our best sleeping in the day and our best hunting at night—but in ourattempts to blend in, we’d gradually evolved to more human habits, and now mostof us slept at least some of the night away.

I still did my deepest and bestsleeping during the mornings, from 6 a.m. to around noon, and by the time I gothome, two hours of my morning were already gone. I brought up some loud rainsounds on my phone before dropping it on its charger, fell into bed, and sleptlike the dead until two o’clock.

Lucy was working down the blockat the bakery, but apparently she’d come home on her lunch break. There wereenough baked goods on the table to feed an army, and I ate most of them,washing them down with an entire half gallon of milk.

I had two missed calls—one fromthe detective, and one from the alpha. When I hadn’t answered, Jared had sent atext. Rick had left a voicemail. I read the text from the alpha first.

How are you feeling?

I hesitated before replying,because…I wasn’t sure why. I just studied his text for a little too long beforefinally, I texted,I’m fine. Busy night, just woke up. Will be there tonightto hunt.

He texted back before I couldlisten to Detective Moreno’s voicemail.See you tonight.

Nothing special in his texts,but still, my mouth dried up, my stomach tightened, and my heart beat a littlefast. Weird.

The detective’s voicemail wasbrief. “Call me when you wake up. The mayor wants to see you.”

Little Noah’s return was allover the news. Reporters stood outside the hospital where he was said to be instable condition, and they continuously cut to a blurry photo of Oak Street inthe ‘ville, showing the mayor with his arms around his wife, the two cops whostood with them, and me.

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered.At least the image was blurry and had only caught my profile, so maybe no onewould recognize me.

The man who’d abducted the boywas dead, shot by the police when they’d gone in to save Noah. He’d pulled a gunand forced them to shoot, likely on purpose. He knew prison was waiting, andprison was a dark place for an asshole who hurt kids.

My ringtone sounded at thatmoment, and I groaned when my mother’s name came up. “Hey, mom,” I answered,putting her on speaker. “What’s up?”

“Have you seen thenewsiswhat’sup, Kaitlyn Danielle.”

I sighed. “Mom—”

“I do not want you on thealpha’s radar, honey. He needs to not think of you ever again. What if he seesyou and decides to send a scout—or worse, a warrior—after you? After us?”

“We haven’t heard from him for twelveyears,” I said. “He’s not going to summon me now just because he sees an imageon the news that may or may not be me. I mean really, if you weren’t my mother,you wouldn’t have known that was me.”

“If he wants you, you’ll haveto return to him.”

I flinched at the tone of fearand resignation in her tone. “No,” I said. “I will not have to return to him.I’m not his wolf. He’s not my alpha. And the only reason for me to set foot inStonebridge again is if I find a way to get close to him so I can slide a bladeinto his black heart for what he did to us.”

“Kait, don’t say things likethat.” There was real fear in her voice, and it made me hate Adam Thorne evenmore. There was no logic when it came to our old alpha and his grudges.

“Mom, he sent us away to punishus. He does not want us, so he’s certainly not going to call us back now.”

“He may believe we’ve sufferedenough. You know wolves hate their pack numbers to dwindle, and I’ve heard thatStone Moon Pack is declining. If he thinks he can use you…”