Blue Moon: Blood Moon Trilogy #3 (12 page)

I released Nick’s hand to run my fingers through her fur. She couldn’t speak in this form, but she didn’t have to; her gratitude was obvious in the way she rested her head against mine. I saved her life when I broke us out of that hellhole. She may not have been scheduled to die today or even a year from now, but she would have died in that compound at some point or another. I saved her from that and was going to return her to her family. She knew that, and I could sense the whirlwind of emotions that was swirling inside of her. She was happy and nervous, but beyond all that, she was grateful.

Knowing I’d done something so meaningful for her was enough to get me through any of the horror I’d just escaped and the stress I knew was sure to follow.

Smiling, I looked up and saw Vince and Roxanne approaching, eyes shining with relief and happiness. It was good to see them again. They were proof I was on my way back to my pack. My eyes scanned the clearing, smile faltering when I noticed one wolf was still missing.

Jackson.

I
couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gone wrong after I left Jackson, but Nick told me that he likely took the scenic route back to the manor without us. He wasn’t really much for crowds if he could help it; that much I’d learned. I figured Nick was probably right, so I grudgingly followed.

When we reached the truck that they had left a few miles away, Roxanne and Vince shifted back and got dressed. Cordelia remained in her wolf form, likely due to a lack of clothing and quite possibly because she felt comfortable and safe like this. The fact that Nick was fully clothed meant he either hadn’t shifted while he searched for me, or he had found a way to carry his clothes with him—perhaps by mouth. Whatever the explanation, I was glad to have him walking with me as we approached the vehicle. It had been far too long since I’d held his hand or taken comfort in his embrace. I needed that now more than anything.

Roxanne, Vince, and Nick sat up front. They were a little cramped, but Nick recognized that Cordelia was most comfortable with me, and allowed her the space she needed. She lay across the back seat with her large wolf head on my lap, eyes closed and breathing deeply.

When we arrived at the edge of the property around dusk, Roxanne took Cordelia into the brush to attempt to shift back. I happily went with them when Cordelia looked up at me with her big puppy-dog eyes and helped Roxanne coach her through it.

Having succeeded after a half hour of struggling, I asked Nick for his sweater. It was much too long on Cordelia, but it was clothing, and none of us wanted her reunion with her parents to be in the nude.

With every step up the driveway, I heard Cordelia’s heart speed up. I could smell her sweat as her nervousness spiked. She stayed a couple steps behind us, and Nick and I were barely through the front door when two sets of arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly. The way they held me reminded me of my reunion with my parents, and I closed my eyes, hugging them back.

“We’re so happy you’re okay,” Miranda said, giving me another little squeeze. “When we heard you’d gone miss—” She paused, her posture going rigid in my arms, and then she inhaled a shaky breath as she slowly pulled away, extracting her arms and grasping Marcus’s upper arm tightly. When I looked at her, I noticed her eyes weren’t on me, but staring past me…at her long-lost daughter.

“Oh,” I said softly. “I think I may have found someone who belongs to you.”

Marcus and Miranda both looked at me, then at Nick and back at their daughter. Their shock kept them paralyzed in place for a beat before I stepped out of the way and held my arm out toward Cordelia, inviting her forward.

“It’s okay,” I told her.

She stepped forward, bypassing me completely and running straight into her mother’s arms. “Mama!” she cried, wrapping her arms around Miranda’s waist.

Marcus had tears in his eyes when I looked his way, and as he folded his wife and daughter in his arms, he glanced up at me and said, “Thank you.”

Watching their reunion brought tears to my own eyes, and Nick wrapped an arm around me, pulling me close and pressing a kiss into the top of my head. I circled my arms around him and rested my head on his chest as we watched Miranda and Marcus reconnect with their child.

A shrill cry of surprise made me jump. Growling, my entire body was tensing for some kind of attack. It wasn’t until I heard the thundering footsteps on the stairs ahead of us and saw both Colby and Corbin sprinting toward their family that I relaxed.

I was still so jumpy, and I hated it.

Empathetic as always, Nick picked up on my increasing anxiety and led me toward the stairs. “We’re going to go rest. It’s been a long trip home,” he announced, accepting Marcus’s handshake.

Before I even hit the first stair, Marcus pulled me back into a strong embrace, kissed my cheek, and expressed his gratitude again and again.

“I would do it all over again if it meant making your family whole, Marcus,” I told him. “Now, go and have a good evening with your family. Perhaps a private dinner. I’m sure the rest of us wouldn’t mind fending for ourselves for an evening. We can do a big family sit down in the morning when everyone’s back.”

With that, Nick and I headed to our room, and once the door was closed, he pulled me against him and crushed his lips to mine in a kiss that left my legs weak and my head dizzy. Desperation seeping from him, his hands splayed across my back, pulling me against his body, eagerly tugging at the too-big shirt I still wore. His fingers crept beneath the hem of the shirt, inching their way up over my waist and toward my breasts. I welcomed his touch, exulted in it, but when his left hand reached my ribcage, his lips froze before he pulled back.

Brow furrowed, he lifted my shirt. The more skin he exposed, the deeper his eyebrows dipped. I knew what he saw, but the minute his fingers brushed the scars that covered my upper torso, I pulled away and tugged the shirt back down.

“What did they do to you?” he asked, trying to keep the anger from his voice so as not to frighten me.

There was no way around his question. If I didn’t answer now, he’d ask again and again until he had all the facts. I knew the truth would upset him, and that was the last thing I wanted, but he deserved to know what happened to me, and I needed to be upfront about it in order to make peace with it all.

“Brooke?” he urged gently. “Baby, what?”

Taking a deep breath, I perched myself on the edge of the bed, sandwiching my hands between my knees and slowly meeting his gaze. “Every day, they’d take us to a room.” Nick’s nostrils flared, but he listened without interrupting. “Some days, they just left us alone. Observed us. Other days, they’d remove our collars—”

“I’m sorry,” he interrupted, holding up a hand. “They
collared
you?”

Nodding, I explained. “To keep us in line, they had these collars that kept the wolf at bay. The slightest rise in temperature released a silver nitrate mist into the air, forcing the wolf into submission. If, by chance, we were able to shift regardless of the silver, the collars were fitted with silver spikes that were in line with our carotid arteries. As our neck’s thickened, the spikes would kill us instantly. Cordelia warned me of them the day I woke up in my cell. I almost shifted, but she stopped me.”

Nick shook his head, unable to wrap his head around all of this, but he urged me to continue.

“On the days they’d remove the collars, they’d try to force our change. Cordelia told me that her change was often immediate because they would keep her collar on for weeks or months at a time, so she wasn’t often allowed to shift. Me? I refused, and they surrounded me. I panicked and shifted.”

“And the scars?”

“There was another room where they tied me to a chair. They interrogated me like a prisoner of war. Tortured me for no reason other than their enjoyment and to see how quickly I healed.”

“Do you know why you were there?”

“At first, no. But as time went on, I learned more and more. They experimented on me—on my blood. Bobby seems to think he can blend the races to create some kind of hybrid.”

“Hybrids?” Nick queried. “Why would anyone want that?”

I shrugged. “Think about it, vampires without the restriction of the sun?”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Could they do that? Have they succeeded?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. Bobby said Gianna unlocked the secret. Found the key.” Eyeing me expectantly, Nick waited. “Me. She suspected that the reason none of her trials had been successful was because the DNA of all of the test subjects weren’t cohesive. She figured that because Bobby and I share so many genetic markers due to being related, we’d be the first successful attempt. Bobby planned to test her theory in the first few days I was there, but something stopped him, made him want to wait a few months.”

“What?”

I shrugged. “He never said. He just got this stupid smirk on his face and said they’d experiment and do more testing in the meantime.”

Nick wrapped a hand around one of my wrists and lifted it, taking my hand in his as he used his other hand to brush a fallen strand of my dirty hair from my face. I closed my eyes and breathed him in.

“I am
so
sorry,” he whispered, leaning forward. “If I’d only been honest—”

Shaking my head, I stopped him. “No. I told you, this is no one’s fault. I went off on my own. I hunted and then heard a girl scream. The second I saw her laying on the ground, I knew it was a trap. I could smell him—Bobby—but I approached her anyway. I should have stayed and talked everything out…but, if I’d have done that, then I never would have found Cordelia.” I smiled and gave a small shrug. “I never used to understand when people would say that everything happens for a reason. Up until now, everything that’s happened has been so awful that there couldn’t possibly be a good enough reason for it, but this? I get it now. This was the reason that everything led up to. It has to be.”

Nick nodded, his expression changing from repentant to happy. “I think you might be right,” he replied, kissing me softly.

Before the kiss could escalate the way it had before our talk, I pulled back. “Would you mind if I showered? As much as I’d like to continue talking about this, I can’t help but think my lack of personal hygiene is a total turn off.” I gave a small, tentative sniff and cringed. “Plus, I still smell a little like the skunk I used as a cover.”

Chuckling, he tilted his head toward the open bathroom door. “Of course. Take your time if you need to. I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”

Once inside the bathroom, I turned to close the door, but my anxiety spiked slightly at the idea of being closed inside a room—even one as spacious and luxurious as this one—so I left it slightly ajar. I stripped the clothes I wore off and tossed them in the wastebasket; I had no use for them after today, and wanted nothing left to remind me of my imprisonment.

Naked, I stood in front of the mirror and took in my reflection. My ribs were showing due to my not eating much over the last couple days, my stomach was slightly distended from what little I had managed to eat, and scars—both new and old—littered my body. The bags under my eyes were prominent, and being held against my will in a mountain fortress did absolutely nothing for my skin and hair. My skin had lost its usual glow, and my hair looked dull and lifeless. I barely even recognized myself.

Stomach rolling with nausea as I replayed the events of my time held captive, I turned away from the mirror and stepped into the shower stall. I headed straight for the waterfall head and turned it on, waiting a couple seconds for the water to warm before stepping beneath the steady flow of water.

After washing my hair and body, I closed my eyes and pressed my hands to the cool tile wall, letting the water flow over my neck and shoulders, wetting my entire body. After days without showering, nothing had ever felt so good. I could practically feel the tension melting away as the water washed it away down the drain. I tried to bury the memory of my time away from the manor for the time being. When it was time to relay the information to Marcus and the rest of the Pack, I would exhume it, but for now I just wanted to focus on the good.

I was home, I reunited Cordelia with her parents, and Nick was just beyond the bathroom door—

I’d barely finished the thought when I heard the door click shut. I pulled out from under the waterfall and whipped around, water flying across the shower stall. My eyes were wide, surprised, and my muscles were tense with fear and preparedness until I saw it was only Nick. I wondered how long I would react to the slightest noise in this way.

His gaze collided with mine as he stepped toward the bathroom stall. He’d shed his clothes already, so he wasted no time before stepping into the shower and approaching me slowly.

My chest rose and fell with each heavy breath I took, and water droplets trickled down my forehead, catching on my eyelashes before dripping onto my cheeks. Nick’s massive strides put him in front of me in no time.

“I’m sorry,” he said, voice low, eyebrows pulled together with genuine remorse. “I know you probably want to be alone, but you’ve been gone for weeks. Even though there was only a door between us, I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to see you…feel you.”

Having him so close to me, naked and eyes burning with desire, lit a spark in me. I tried to find the words that could express just how much it meant to me that he was standing there and never gave up hope. The entire time I’d been held captive, I feared I’d never see him again. But there he was. Standing in front of me, fingers delving into my tangled, wet hair, waiting to kiss me.