Moonlight Read online

  Ethan groaned louder and started struggling to get up. Lucas and I were back in the shadows, but it wouldn’t be long until Ethan was aware of us.

  Lucas apparently had reached the end of his patience, because he dipped down, picked me up, and slung me over his shoulder. Before I could even catch my breath to voice a protest, he was running. Fast. His feet, as always, were silent.

  How could he be so strong, so quick, so quiet when I was draped over his shoulder? What was he? Superwolf?

  I was still clutching my flashlight. I thought about swinging it between his legs. That would stop him and dump me on the ground at the same time. But I didn’t. I just hung there with trees rushing by in a blur.

  You’re one of us.

  I’m one of them.

  I thought about this strange fear that had been circling inside me—the fear with origins I couldn’t figure out. I considered all the strange inner sensations I’d had, the feeling that I was changing in ways I couldn’t comprehend.

  I told myself they were normal teenage fears, normal teenage changes.

  I wasn’t one of them. Lucas was wrong. Maybe he wanted me to be like him.

  But he was mistaken. I wasn’t like him. I was normal. I was Kayla Madison, confused teenage girl.

  I was not about to become a werewolf.

  I don’t know how long or how far Lucas ran before I finally yelled, “Okay already, stop!”

  He didn’t listen. He just kept going.

  I hit his butt with my flashlight. “Stop! I mean it! Stop or I’ll—”

  I’ll what? He’s bigger, tougher, stronger.

  Maybe he heard something in my voice, or maybe he was just worn out, but he came to a halt and let me down. My feet hit the earth, but my legs were wobbly and I collapsed onto the ground.

  He crouched beside me. He was breathing heavily, like I did when I ran up stairs. But it seemed like after all that running with me over his shoulder, he should be panting, gasping. I’d never in a million years be so in shape.

  The moonlight was breaking through the branches, but I wanted more. I wanted sunlight, but it wouldn’t be here for a few more hours. I turned on my flashlight. I didn’t shine it directly into his face. I didn’t need to. Just having it on was enough.

  “You didn’t run into anything,” I said. It was a mindless thing to say. I guess he thought so, too, because he looked a little surprised.

  “I have really good night vision,” he finally said.

  “Is that because you’re a—”

  “Yeah. Vision, hearing, smell—they all improve after the first transformation.”

  I nodded and swallowed. “So what are you…exactly?”

  “Technical term is lycanthrope. We refer to ourselves as Shifters. People who don’t know any better call us werewolves.” He glanced around. “We need to start walking, put more distance between us and the Statics.”

  “Statics?” I asked.

  “Those who never change.” He said it with a hint of sadness. I didn’t know if he was feeling sorry for those who didn’t have the ability to shift or those who did.

  He took my hand and pulled me to my feet. I swayed. If I hadn’t knocked against him, I probably would have hit the ground again. His arms came around me and he held my gaze. “I know it’s a shock, everything you’ve learned tonight.”

  Ya think? I shook my head, then nodded. I was still so confused. My brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “What did you mean when you said ‘if I wanted to survive’?”

  Gently, he touched my cheek with his fingertips. They were rough and callused. I didn’t want to think that earlier in the night they’d also sported claws that could rip my face apart. “The first time you shift it’s painful, like childbirth. In a way, I guess that makes sense. You’re giving birth to your inner wolf. So you need your mate there to coach you through it.”

  “My mate?” Is he for real?

  “Don’t you feel it?” he asked. “This pull between us?”

  Was he talking about this thing that terrified me?

  I stepped away from him. “I don’t want this!” I stalked around in the little bit of area we had between the trees. “I didn’t ask for this!” I came to an abrupt halt. “So what? At some point in my life I was bitten?”

  “It’s genetic, just like Keane said.”

  “You’re saying that I inherited this ability to shift? What? Like from my parents? That they were”—I stuttered and stopped, trying to wrap my mind around the ramifications—“that they were wolves?”

  He just looked at me.

  “That’s insane! They would have told me.” I had this flash memory of wolves. I ignored it. “And you’re wrong. I’m not one of you.”

  His large shoulders rolled into a shrug. “Okay, you’re not. But you’d better stick with me—just in case I’m right. Besides, Evil Scientist will know you helped me escape and he’s not very forgiving.”

  My brow furrowed so deeply that it hurt. “How did you know that I call him that?” I backed up a step. “Oh my God! You can read minds?” My voice shimmered with outrage and accusation. He didn’t bother to deny it. Did he know everything I thought?

  “Only when I’m in wolf form,” he said. He took the flashlight, clicked it off, and handed it back to me. “No sense in broadcasting where we’re going.”

  He grabbed my hand and tugged me deeper into the woods. I didn’t want to go, but he was right. Unfortunately. I was stuck with him until I could figure out my alternatives.

  My eyes adjusted to the wilderness bathed in moonlight. I was following so closely behind Lucas that I pretty much stepped where he stepped. His hand held mine firmly. He was so tall and broad, and his fingers felt so strong wrapped around mine, that I wondered if he was naturally this way or if it came about when he first shifted into wolf form. Of course, I guessed that naturally was the wrong word. On the other hand, for him shifting was natural. Not to shift was weird.

  It was an upside-down, insane world that I was suddenly part of.

  I had a gazillion questions, but since we were trying to be quiet until we reached wherever we were going—I hadn’t asked and he hadn’t said, but his strides definitely had a purpose—I kept all my questions to myself. Besides, he was moving fast and I was having a difficult time keeping pace. I had thought I was in decent shape, but I was breathing like a dog after it chased a Frisbee. Dog, wolf—I needed to stop thinking about animals.

  I didn’t have a lot of time left to figure out how not to shift into a wild creature—if I truly was about to shift. I still had doubts about that. Wouldn’t you know, deep down, if you were part wolf or had any bit of wolf in you? It just all seemed inconceivable. But if it was about to happen, surely there was some way to prevent it. If I fought it…mind over matter. Or in this case, mind over wolf. I just wouldn’t accept it.

  Because if I accepted it, did I have to accept Lucas as my mate? Shouldn’t I have a choice in the matter?

  He’d asked if I felt the pull. I couldn’t deny that I did. And that it terrified me.

  It wasn’t like a crush. It wasn’t like seeing a guy and thinking I’d like him to take me to the prom. It was soul-deep, as though he was everything, the one, forever. I had to remind myself that I barely knew the guy. But still I couldn’t shake the feeling of being meant for each other—as corny as that sounded.

  We were going into a part of the wilderness that I’d never been to before. The brush was thick, the trees growing closely together. The thick canopy overhead nearly blocked out every drop of moonlight. He was dragging me up an incline and then stopping me from skidding down on the other side.

  I remembered that he was barefoot. His feet would be a bloodied mess of scrapes and cuts. He never complained. He never grunted. He just kept going as though the hounds of hell were on our tail.

  Only he was the hound of hell.

  I was completely lost. My movements were robotic, made without thought.

  Eventually we were scrambling up the sid