BrightBlueMoon (14 page)
Authors: Ranae Rose
He pressed the weapon into her hand, and she wrapped her fingers around the blade.
“Look at me, Kimberly,” he said, kneeling in front of her, his expression sober. “Don’t be afraid. You could push that blade into my heart and it wouldn’t hurt as bad as stayin’ away from you for damn near thirty years did. If you’re gonna wear my mark, I’m sure as hell gonna wear yours. I’m done with us bearing our separate burdens – we’re in this together now.”
Her shoulder throbbed where he’d marked her, where his teeth had pierced her flesh, leaving puncture wounds that nearly formed half moon shapes on either side of her shoulder. A half moon… Just a quick but careful cut. She was no artist, but she could manage that. And that night, with a little time spent in the light of an almost full moon, his wound would heal quickly, forming the scar he wanted.
“Okay.” She raised the knife.
A minute later, he was bleeding. And smiling.
She handed the knife back to him, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Knew you had it in you,” he teased. “The moment I saw you bring that guitar down on that dog’s skull, I knew you’d never hesitate to set me straight if I needed it, human or not.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “This—” she waved her hand toward the blade she’d just surrendered
“—was a one-time only thing. No matter how badly you may behave in the future.”
“I can only hope. Won’t have anywhere to run and hide in the city if I make you mad, will I?”
Her heart twinged as she thought of the years she’d passed in Nashville without him. “No running and hiding. I’m sure we’ll encounter challenges, but promise you’ll stay and we’ll work things out.”
He was suddenly sober, the teasing light gone from his eyes. “Always.”
A bolt of fierceness pierced her heart, and she reached out to grip his arm. “Even if you think leaving is best, don’t. I don’t want that. Mandy is an adult now with her own life. It’s just me and you, and if things get tough or even dangerous, so be it. Don’t try to protect me by excluding me.”
His expression was sober. Slowly, he nodded. “I won’t. You have my word.”
A weight she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying slid off her shoulders, and she breathed a sigh.
“Anyway,” she continued, her thoughts drifting toward the future she and Michael were about to build together, “you know I grew up in a small town. I always wanted to move out of the city, eventually, but I figured if I left Nashville, you wouldn’t have any way of finding me if you came back looking. Maybe now that we’re together again, we can consider moving. Maybe look at places in the country … the mountains.” As she spoke, she cleaned his wound with a spare length of gauze, bandaging it lightly.
“Anything you want, Kimberly. I’d live in a cardboard box in a dark alley if it meant curling up next to you every night.”
She wrinkled her nose and hit him lightly on the arm. “Yuck. I went through some tough times as a single mom, but my situation was never as dire as a cardboard box.”
“Wait ‘till you hear about some of the places I slept while I was hunting the Gruens. They’d make an alleyway look like The Ritz.”
“You’ll have to tell me everything,” she said, meaning it.
He nodded as he picked his t-shirt up and stuffed it into a pocket, simultaneously slipping his feet back into his boots and taking one of her hands in his. “You start – tell me where you got the guitar you took out that dog with.”
She pulled his flannel tight around her body as they started in the direction of the car. “I picked it up at the store last night, when I went to get breakfast supplies. It was on sale and I thought maybe you’d like to take up playing again.”
“It’s been a while. Not sure I could play a chord to save my life.”
“Maybe some time back in Music City will inspire you.”
“Maybe,” he said, slipping an arm around her waist as a breeze blew through the trees and yellow leaves rained down around them. “After these past two weeks, I reckon I believe just about anything is possible.”
Sparks and bullets fly as a werewolf pack in the Great Smoky Mountains grows from one lonely alpha to a strong pack united by love and loyalty.
Thank you for reading
Bright Blue Moon
.
Stay up to date with the entire Half Moon Shifters Series by visiting the
Half Moon Shifters page
at ranaerose.com anytime.
Other Half Moon Shifters Series books currently available…
Lonely Alpha
(Half Moon Shifters, #1)
True Alpha
(Half Moon Shifters, #2)
A Taste of Honey
(Half Moon Shifters, #3)
Read on for an excerpt from A Taste of Honey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ranae Rose is the best-selling author of over a dozen adult romances and counting. She calls the US East Coast home and resides there with her family, German Shepherd dogs and overflowing bookshelves. Writing and reading are lifelong passions that consume most of her time, and she’s always working on bringing her latest love story idea to life for readers.
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A Taste of Honey
Love at first sight? Not exactly. Things work a little differently for wolf shifters, though hunky park ranger Ronnie is a dream to look at, especially when he’s in uniform. Violet’s senses have been telling her he’s the one since the first time she caught a hint of his scent. Could she really be destined to be the mate of a bear shifter? Their differences are undeniable, but that hasn’t stopped her from wondering what it would be like to live happily ever after with the drop-dead sexy ranger who also serves as war chief of the Great Smoky Mountains’ resident bear shifter tribe. But bears don’t detect their mates by scent – their methods are scintillatingly personal. Tension simmers, and one thing will either make or break both of their hopes for the future – a taste of honey.
Book 3 in the Half Moon Shifters Series
Read on for an excerpt…
A TASTE OF HONEY EXCERPT
His heart kept time, marking each passing second with ferocious beats as he guided his truck off the road and into his driveway. Adrenaline coursed through his veins, making them tingle and causing his throat to ache as he exited the cab and firmly closed its door. Maybe it was nothing – it was probably nothing – but it was his job to act as if it might be something and past experience had primed him for this moment, for any moment when it seemed danger might be threatening his tribe.
Or his mate. He was too intent on his current mission to eschew the thought completely. Violet might not be his mate, but clearly his heart was convinced otherwise. Each heavy beat urged him to find her, to protect her and the longed-for possibility that she embodied. It was impossible to guard his heart or his hopes when he feared for her safety. Twisting the knob and walking through the unlocked front door, he called her name.
No response.
He strode quickly into the cabin and checked every room, even his bedroom. It was easy to imagine her there, but she was nowhere to be found. Upon returning to the kitchen, he found a full pot of coffee waiting, untouched. A quick glance afforded him a glimpse of the worm container, still tucked behind the coffeemaker. Had he really been worried about it? If Violet felt anything like what he felt for her – if they were really meant to be mated – it would take a lot more than a container of earthworms to drive her away.
He had to find her. The backdoor beckoned. He opened it, imagining her small hand closing around the knob after he’d left. She must have gone for a walk, like she’d mentioned. Why had he left her alone? He should’ve taken her along for the ride to the station, even if it would’ve meant her having to suffer through a meeting with Hargrove.
Remaining a man was out of the question. He needed to be fast, strong and able to rely on his senses when they were at their best. Without sparing a thought for his clothing, he shifted. His flannel, t-shirt and jeans fluttered to the ground like soft confetti as he assumed his bear form. This way, he could find her quickly and defend her if necessary.
It probably wouldn’t be necessary – a fact he kept reminding himself of as he entered the red, brown and gold shadowland of the forest and charged through, his heavy paws crushing small branches underfoot and compressing the dense carpet of fallen leaves that had accumulated over the past several months. He inhaled deeply as he ran, scenting the air for any trace of Violet. He’d grown accustomed to her clean, sweet fragrance and his heart leapt when it drifted to him on a breeze.
He was huge, but his bulk didn’t slow him down. He wasn’t slow in his human form either, but never would’ve been able to race through the forest this way, dodging only the largest of obstacles and flattening all others in his path. Was this what it felt like to race to protect one’s mate? He’d done a lot of defending in the past but the urgency had never felt quite this potent, not even when he’d helped Jack and the rest of the Half Moon pack rescue Mandy when she’d been kidnapped.
Each breath seared his lungs as he flattened saplings and leapt over boulders. If there really was a danger to bears lurking in the mountains, he was a sizeable, noisy target in his current form, but it didn’t matter. He felt buoyed by the importance of his mission, invincible because he
had
to be in order to protect Violet.
When he found her, he almost trampled her. Stretched flat on a rock that hung over his favorite fishing stream, he didn’t see her until he was almost on top of her. He skidded to a violent halt, his claws tearing up the earth and sending it flying along with a spray of pebbles and colorful, papery leaves.
Violet’s eyes went wide and she curled in on herself, protecting her vital organs by instinct as she threw up a hand in protest and toppled over the edge of the rock, her mouth open in a silent scream.
A sound of regret tore its way out of Ronnie’s chest as he lunged forward, too late to help. By the time he landed on the edge of the rock, he was a man again and gripped its edge with an ink-stained hand as he threw his other arm out into open space, reaching for her. “Violet!”
A wolf stared up at him from the stream, chocolate brown and shoulder-deep in running water. Even in her lupine form, her blue eyes were clearly recognizable and there was no mistaking the sweater that clung to her body, torn along most of its seams.
For a moment, he simply stared, eyes locked with hers. She was a beautiful wolf but he couldn’t take her hand and lift her out of the water in this form.
“Change,” he said, speaking loudly enough that his voice rumbled clearly over the sound of the stream. “I’ll lift you out.”
She glanced first at the rocky little overhang he was stretched across, then at the steep, muddy bank on the other side of the stream. Apparently, he was the most appealing option. In the blink of an eye, she became a woman again.
When she extended a hand, reaching for him, he took it and hoisted her up onto the rock. She was light as a feather, even in her dripping clothes – or what was left of them, anyway.
Her sweater was loose enough that it hadn’t been completely destroyed during her transformation, but it had torn along most of its seams and now clung to her – just barely – displaying generous views of milky flesh and what looked like the tattered remains of a camisole. Her jeans had fared even worse and floated down the stream in a cluster of dark-blue denim ribbons as she gasped and looked up at him with wide, blue eyes.
Until that moment, he hadn’t spared a thought for his nudity.
Water glistened and fell from her lips in tiny drops as their gazes locked and he was suddenly
aware
of being naked in a way he’d never been before. It wasn’t just a state of being or simple lack of clothing; it was a temptation, a glorious absence of physical barriers between himself and her. The deep ache of desperate desire that had been driving his racing heart and surging through his veins, urging him to find her, finally made its way to his cock. He reached out and laid his hands on her shoulders, gripping her slender arms as a shiver wracked them. He was done waiting – he had to know, now, whether she really was the one.
He pressed his mouth to hers, too eager to hold back. Her lips were soft and warm beneath the superficial chill her submersion had left them with and she smelled as crisp and clean as a mountain spring, the floral notes of her shampoo sweet highlights in her scent. As she parted her lips, his heart surged ahead and he pressed his tongue inside, past her teeth, in search of one thing – a taste of honey. Just a taste of honey, and she would be his forever.
A Taste of Honey is available at major ebook retailers everywhere.
