Hunger Moon Rising Read online

  “Yeah, Molly, I have a fuckin' objection. What if he heals the cuts, then what?”

  She frowned. “You know the rules—if his kiss heals her, his claim is valid even though a formal mating mark hadn't been made. In which case she belongs to him, at least for the night, and tomorrow you can issue a formal challenge if you wish to.”

  “What's to keep him from marking her tonight, then?” Thrash demanded. “She's no good to me as Mabon queen if she has another wolf's mark on her.”

  The priestess looked me up and down. “You're new to the pack but not to this area,” she said to me. “What is your name?”

  “I am Benjamin, son of Brandon,” I said formally. “My father had rights in this pack, which I chose not to inherit after his death. I wish to claim them now.”

  She nodded gravely. “So noted, Benjamin, son of Brandon. And will you swear that if you win this woman tonight you will not mate her?”

  I nodded. “I swear.”

  “And that you will not attempt to leave these premises until after Mabon, when the Goddess has ruled according to her will?”

  I swallowed hard. My only thought had been to get Dani and go. I hadn't counted on having to stay the night. Still, there was no other way. I nodded again and said, “This I swear as well.”

  The priestess, Molly, nodded back at me. “I call on all of you to witness,” she called out to the watching pack. Most of them were big men, like myself, and all had women by their sides—mates they had taken from the human world and brought into the pack.

  “Heard and witnessed,” came the words from a dozen voices.

  Molly turned back to me. “I knew your father well, Ben,” she said. “Your word is trusted here, though you have not chosen to be a part of us until tonight.” She touched me lightly on the shoulder. “Go to her. I can tell how much you need her.”

  I pushed past the Lead Wolf, giving him a glare as I went. There was pure hatred in his yellow eyes, but there was nothing he could do without going against protocol. I just hoped like hell my love for Dani would be enough to heal her.

  I dropped to my knees beside her, feeling an overwhelming, almost physical relief at being able to touch her at last. At first I thought she had fainted, but when I cupped her bruised cheek in my palm, her eyes fluttered open and she looked at me.

  “Ben?” she whispered.

  “Shh,” I said, stroking her hair back from her forehead. Her skin was terribly pale, and the streaks of crimson down her arms and legs were garishly bright in comparison. The white silk teddy was thin, and I could clearly see the outline of her nipples beneath it. But I didn't care about that now. I just wanted to comfort and reassure her. “I'm here,” I told her softly. “I won't let him hurt you anymore.”

  “I decided not to drop the story.” She tried to give me a smile, but her mouth was hurt where someone, no doubt Thrash, had hit her. I tasted fresh rage at the back of my throat and forced it down.

  “I see that.” I tried to smile back.

  “How…how did you know how to find me?”

  “Daryl called and told me you went looking for trouble,” I told her. “So I came looking for you.”

  “I'm glad.” Her eyes were big, and the fear I saw in them almost broke my heart. But of course, Dani wouldn't voice her terror out loud—that wasn't her way. “So what's the plan?” she whispered. “Can you get us out of here?”

  “I think so. I, uh, have to prove that I can heal you.” I gestured at the long shallow wounds on her arms and thighs.

  Dani frowned. “Can you? Is that a werewolf thing?”

  “It can be.” I looked around at the waiting pack, knowing my love for her was about to be put on the line, tested as it had never been before. My heart was pounding against my ribs. What if I couldn't do it? What if I couldn't heal her? It would be Thrash's right to continue the ceremony and there would be nothing, by pack law, that I could do about it.

  If that happened, I decided, I would fight him anyway. I would fight until I changed, and then fight again in wolf form until I died. But I wouldn't just let him have Dani, no matter what.

  I stroked her hair gently. “I'm going to do something now that might seem strange to you, but it's necessary. All right?”

  I saw the uncertainty in her eyes. I had broken her trust once, and it was hard for her to believe she could trust me again. But she nodded her head, not saying anything, giving me silent permission to do what I needed to do.

  I bent my head to her left wrist, which was tied to the carved wooden platform by a length of ceremonial black satin. The warm, secret scent of her skin filled my senses, and I let the love I felt for her fill my soul. Anything for you, Dani, I thought, bending my head to kiss the spot on her wrist where the long shallow scratch began. Love you so much. Please, Goddess, help me show it.

  I felt a tingle, almost like an electric spark, jump between us when my lips brushed her skin. Dani must have felt it too because she opened her eyes and gasped. I looked at her, letting the love I felt fill my eyes.

  “It's all right,” I whispered. “Just relax.” I kissed her again, then licked her, caressing the scratch on her arm with a soothing stroke of my tongue. The taste of her blood and skin and fear was strong in my mouth, and I could feel the moon shining down from the glass ceiling above me like a solid silver weight on my back. I ignored it. I closed my eyes, concentrating only on Dani, and continued to lick and kiss, making my way up the creamy underside of her arm, pouring out the love I felt for her, willing her to heal.

  The tingle continued to grow, and I heard Dani give a little mew of emotion, but whether of pleasure or pain I couldn't be sure. I kept my eyes closed, concentrating hard. I couldn't let myself be distracted—not now, not when so much was at stake. But there was no denying that a connection was forming between us as the tingle turned into a warm, electric current that pulsed beneath my skin and, I knew, hers as well. She was so hurt, so wounded, and my urge to protect her was strong, almost as strong as my need to heal her. I wanted to cradle her in my arms and keep her safe from the world, and at the same time, I wanted to take her, make love to her, and make her mine forever. I wanted to truly claim her, not just pretend.

  From behind me I heard a surprised murmur of voices, and then someone said, “It's working—he's doing it.”

  “He's healing her,” someone else agreed. The rest of the pack began talking, sounding excited.

  “Ben?” Dani's voice was uncertain.

  At last I allowed myself to open my eyes. The long wound on the arm I had been licking and kissing was gone. Dani's skin had knitted together so neatly it hadn't even left a scar. It was as though she had never been hurt in the first place.

  A fierce, triumphant joy filled my heart. She was mine—mine—and I had proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt. But when I looked up, the troubled expression on Dani's face brought me crashing back down again. Now more than ever I had proven to her that I was different, that I was other. She might be mine, at least for tonight in the eyes of the pack, but I knew the truth; she didn't belong to me and never would.

  Still, I stood and faced the pack. The snarling Thrash and the priestess, Molly, were standing side by side, a little in front of the rest.

  “She is mine,” I said, reciting the words my grandfather had taught me as an adolescent in case I was ever in this situation. “I claim her by the wounds I have healed and by the love I bear her.”

  The priestess bowed her head slightly. “Your claim is justified, Benjamin, son of Brandon. Take this woman. Comfort her, hold her, heal her, but do not mark her. With this I charge you.”

  I nodded, and four other weres came forward with knives to cut Dani's bonds. The minute she was free, I leaned down and scooped her into my arms. The white silk teddy she was wearing was smeared with her blood, and she trembled in my arms like a hurt child.

  “It's all right,” I whispered, feeling like my heart might burst. God, I just needed to get her away from here! I wished with all my heart that