Page 55 of The Red Moon

“Good. Will you have them ready in time?” I ask, bringing Natalia inside the room and lowering her to the bed gently.

Alexey considers this for a moment, pursing his mouth. “These things aren’t easy to craft, you know. I have to heat up the metal. Shape with hammer. Refine. Polish by hand⁠—”

“Just answer the fucking question,” Dimitri interrupts and rolls his eyes.

Alexey pins him with a glare. “You, big man, need to learn patience. Yes. Uncle Alexey might miss out on sleep, but I will have them ready.”

She hasn’t stirred in quite some time besides the occasional moan or whimper. It could be from the pain of her wounds healing but it’s still not enough to wake her. Not yet, at least. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but the stained-glass window overlooking the property has long since gone dark, leaving the small light above us to cast horrible shadows in every corner of the room.

Dimitri’s words have managed to play on repeat in my head, only interrupted by an annoyed chuff or snarl from my wolf despite my many attempts to block him out. To say he isn’t on board with Alexey’s plan is an understatement.

Brilliant deduction, young Vostik. It’s a wonder how your father continues to outsmart you at every turn.

And apparently my mental shields are useless against him now, too.

Since neither of you decided to ask the one that’ll suffer the most from what that human is doing, how about you at least pretend I had a choice in the matter.

I roll my head back and stare at the lines in the ceiling. “It’s not pleasant for me either, you know.”

More annoyed growls accompany his voice at the back of my mind. Your pain is superficial in comparison. We are bound, that is why you feel anything at all.

“Then what about Clément? The rest of the Duval wolves? How are they able to handle it?”

There is a reason his pack is struggling to connect with their wolves. Their lines aren’t severed but weakened. Exposing themselves to silver for years to gain some partial immunity isn’t worth the challenges they’ll face finding the wolf inside them. We aren’t exactly keen to show ourselves when constantly forced to endure torture.

I think back on the training I put myself through for years, all in some pointless attempt to find out if the rumors of my father’s abilities to shift at will were true. This included silver exposure as well. Turning without the moon took longer for me than anyone else in my family, and I can’t help but wonder if I was the cause.

Took long enough for you to connect that dot. But your resistance training was minimal. What the Duval pack has put their wolves through, I fear it might be years before they see any progress.

“We don’t have years.”

My wolf huffs with irritation. You should be less worried about the safety of Clément’s pack and more concerned with what the blood moon will do to your mate.

I stare at the hard lines of her face. “What do you mean?”

This isn’t a regular moon, and when it is full, you will unleash a rabid animal on that compound. Without an alpha to lead her, she will try to kill anything in her path. Not just your father’s army. The Duval wolves. Your human friends. None of them will be safe from her bloodlust.

Gods. I didn’t even consider it. A full moon is one thing. A blood moon for her first transformation? Every aspect of the woman I’ve fallen for will lie dormant. Hidden behind a monster blinded by pure rage, and a thirst to slash through anyone or anything within reach.

My wolf remains silent long enough to create new knots in my unsettled stomach.

I study her for any signs of discomfort. There’s none. No, my little wolf sleeps more peacefully than she has since we saved her from my family’s compound. But the nightmares that seem to trouble her every night aren’t finished. Not yet at least. There’s no telling what might invade her dreams after her first transformation. The brief images of what she did when shifted. Dimitri was right. I can’t lose Natalia, but more importantly, she can’t lose herself.

I draw in a lengthy breath. “What do I have to do?”

THIRTY-FIVE

NATALIE

There’s something to be said about this curse. Sure, everyone talks about the heightened senses but no one has even bothered to mention the fucking headache that seems to greet me every time I open my eyes. I’ve been hungover before—well, more times than I’d care to admit. A hangover doesn’t come anywhere close to the hammer chipping away at my skull. It has only begun to worsen the closer we get to the blood moon, and if this is just a preview, I’m not so sure I’ll want to wake up after transforming.

“We’ve got to quit meeting like this, little wolf,” Nik says as I try to sit up, his arm draped over me as if to keep me from rolling off the side of the guest bed. He grins, and while it does nothing to ease the steady throbbing at my forehead, it does calm the surrounding noises of the castle. Easier to focus on him and tune everything else around me out, I suppose.

“Someone forgot to mention exhaustion was a side effect of using their abilities,” I say and rub my temples, wincing through the pain. “How long was I out this time?”

He places his thumb and forefinger at my chin, tilting it toward him and inspecting my eyes and face. “A few hours. We just missed dinner.”

“We? You didn’t eat anything?”