Page 30 of The Red Moon

Nik grabs me by the wrists and stops me. When I look at him both frustrated and defiant, the concern tensing his brow gives me pause. With a low huff, he stares at the ground, his chest rising and falling just as quick.

“You’re not yourself, right now. Your body is changing. Adjusting to the bite. Any urges you have are going to be amplified.”

“And what if this is the new me, Nikolai?” I say, irritation sharpening my tone to lethal. Bending down, I rip the towel from the floor and wrap it over my body. I clench my hands to fists and feel the familiar sting of my nails biting in. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not the same person that was dragged into your fucking den.”

He closes his eyes and tilts his head to the wall, shame evident in his features. “I know. But if I have you now, I would only be taking advantage of what the curse is doing to you. The changes happening inside of you.”

“What fucking changes?” I scream, not caring who hears it.

“Natalia …” His voice reduces to a whisper, and when I glare at him again, those bright glowing eyes are fixed on my trembling hands.

I look down, and my chest seizes.

Blood trickles from my fingers and lands on the shower mat. When I open each palm, small cuts appear in a row on my reddened skin. My nails are gone, and in their place are sharp, black claws, each slick and dripping.

Nik grabs my wrists again, this time inspecting the wounds. “It’s already starting to heal, but it might take a few hours.” He reaches for the first aid kit on the sink and wraps thick lines of gauze over each.

I stare in horror as he does, acid heaving up my throat. I didn’t even feel my nails grow, let alone puncture my palms. If I can’t even control this, what else is going to happen to me? How am I going to handle changing during the blood moon?

The nails retract slowly, burying beneath the skin of each cuticle before they disappear altogether. I watch in awe, unable to look anywhere else but the human hands now bandaged tight.

Nik tilts my chin. “I’m going to teach you how to control it, okay?”

I nod and blink back fresh tears. I say nothing. I can’t. Being told you’re going to turn into a monster is one thing. Seeing it start to happen is nothing short of terrifying.

He plants a kiss at my forehead. “We will get through this together. I promise.”

A throat clears at the doorway, startling us both. Leaning against the frame for leverage, Alexey watches us curiously, his pained face tightened. I adjust the towel and bring my hand to my neck, hiding the bitemark Nik left.

“Me and big man go shop for clothes and supplies. We have long trip, and I’m tired of seeing your dick.”

I arch a brow in confusion, looking from Alexey to Nik. “Trip? Where are we going? Back to LA?”

Nik sighs and leans against the sink, his chest and stomach tensing. The claw marks Viktor left him aren’t fully healed but are close to scarring. “If I’m going to stop my family, we’re going to need help. We will leave today to ask for an audience with a pack that might be willing to see me without turning me over to my father. But there’s a problem.”

I don’t ask the hundreds of questions mincing my insides. I only wait.

When he glances at me again, his features harden. “This pack wants me dead.”

TWENTY

NIK

TWO DAYS BEFORE

We sit at the makeshift table in Alexey’s abandoned post, ignoring how the table sways any time Dimitri reaches for his drink. I can only hope the apocalypse-proof food Alexey is feeding us will stave off the drunk seeming to claim Dimitri, but there’s no telling with a human his size. I’ve seen him at his worst, at his most desperate. Now, all I see are the grins I’ve missed for longer than I can remember. If he has to sleep it off and stay here, to be honest, I’d be happy to let him. This isn’t his fight. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the graveyard I call home. Not after everything my family has put him through.

“And then, Nikolai said I had to find him without opening my eyes,” Dimitri says, wheezing through his fingertips. He leans over the table with an arm, nearly knocking over everything within reach.

Gods, not this story.

Alexey stares at him, hanging off every word.

Dimitri continues, much to my dismay. “I count. Count for minutes against largest pine. When I try to find him, I smell something.”

I arch my head back against the chair, knowing exactly how this story ends.

“I didn’t find Nikolai. But my shoe found what he left in woods behind his house.”