Moonlight (5 page)

I smiled. “Well that’s just fine by me. I won’t remain a human for long.”

She scoffed. “Not everyone survives the transition. There are ways to swing the odds either way.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Why? Are you scared?” She sashayed toward me. Her smug expression sent my blood boiling.

I gritted my teeth to stop myself from saying anything else. I knew what she was doing—trying to get me to snap—and she was dangerously close. I was no match for her yet, so I couldn’t challenge her to a fight; but once I transitioned, she would slowly and painfully eat every last word.

“I’m going to tell you one last time.” Her voice went deadly quiet. “Leave Aiden and this pack… for your own safety.”

I couldn’t help the shiver of fear that threatened to reveal itself. I turned away, hoping to keep it hidden and give off the vibe that she was not worth my attention. “Get it through your head. Aiden and I are already mates,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster.

“You’ll never be his true mate.”

Something slammed hard into the back of my head. Before I could register the pain, the world went dark and I felt myself freefalling into nothingness.

No hangover in the world could compare to the throbbing pain that I felt when I awoke. Aiden’s voice called out to me. I’m not sure how I managed to hear it over the fire alarm ringing in my ears.

Groggy and very much disoriented, I cracked open my eyes and tried to focus. A thick screen of haze clouded my vision. Hanging over me was a tanned blob punctuated by two piercing black dots. I knew it was Aiden, though, and seeing him, even a blurry version of him, gave me that warm fuzzy feeling deep down in my belly. Everything would be okay as long as he was taking care of me.

“Wake up, babe. C’mon. There you go. Open those eyes.” He sounded as if he were talking to me under water, but his voice worked magic, rousing me further. I blinked away some of the haze and focused on him.

“You took a nasty fall. Can you tell me your name?” he asked.

“Diana,” I moaned. It was the first name that popped into my head.

“No, babe.” He sounded really worried. “Diana’s the one who brought you here when you fell. Tell me
your
name.”

My brain hurt too much to think, and the details, like my vision, were a little fuzzy; I couldn’t make sense of them. “What happened?”

“Tell me your name.” Aiden’s frantic voice sharpened to a high pitch.

I reached back into the murky depths of my mind. “Fall…Fallon.” Yeah, that was right. I hoped. Thinking hurt. Everything hurt. I just wanted to fall back into the peaceful abyss of unconsciousness. There, pain did not exist.

I heard a woman’s voice in the background. “Is she going to be all right?” She must have been Diana. That name triggered instant feelings of anger. She sounded concerned, but that couldn’t be right. Diana was bad. But why, I couldn’t quite put my finger on yet. Again I reached as far as I could into the murky depths of memory for the answer.

Aiden turned away from me, and from what I could make out, the two blurry shapes appeared to be intertwined.
Was he hugging her?
“I’m so glad you were there to help her.”

“I know how much she means to you,” Diana sounded so innocent I almost believed her, but a nagging voice in my head sounded warning bells that overtook the ringing in my ears.

She hit me? Didn’t she?

The pain kept me from forming the words, but deep down I knew Diana was full of shit. She had to have hit me or pushed me—something. The last memory I had was of her scowling and threatening me. There was no way I fell. I didn’t remember standing up.

Aiden face returned to view. He was clearer now, and those gorgeous obsidian eyes, filled with concern, met mine. “Sorry, babe. Guess I gave you a little too much lovin’ earlier.” He placed something cold on my forehead. The icy chill helped to slow the throbbing. “You’re probably concussed. We’ll have to keep you up for a little while. Diana has offered to help keep an eye on you while I’m tending to pack business.”

“No,” I blurted out.

His head tilted sideways. “No, what?”

“Not Diana.” I felt like I was moving in slow motion while everything around me was on fast forward. I tried to push myself up but felt instantly dizzy and crashed back down.

“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” I heard Diana say. “Must have really hit her head hard.”

“Call Lyssa,” I moaned.

Aiden crinkled his forehead. “Babe… it’s still daytime. You know she can’t come out here.”

“Daytime?” Why was everything so dark? I wondered. “Shit. What day is it?”

“Do you want me to call a doctor for her?” Diana asked. She sounded so sweet and helpful, and Aiden was eating it up.

“You don’t need to do anything for me,” I snapped, still struggling to sit up. My body just wasn’t cooperating.

“Relax, babe.” Aiden stroked my forehead with a cold wet towel. “It’ll be okay. Just lie back and breathe.”

“Diana. Anyone but her. Not Diana.”

“Maybe I should go. I don’t want to upset your girlfriend.” She sounded sincere, but I didn’t believe it.

“Stay close, in case I need you. She’s just feeling a little vulnerable, I think.” Aiden turned his attention back to me. “What’s wrong, babe? Diana is part of the pack. You remember, right?”

“Pack. Werewolves, right? I’m not one.” I couldn’t form a coherent sentence to save my life.

I tried to sit up again, but my muscles didn’t want to respond, and the effort it took to speak drained me of what little reserves I had left. I needed to close my eyes and sleep. Just for a moment. That’s all I needed.

“Babe, wake up.” Aiden’s voice was accompanied by icy liquid being poured on the top of my head. Rather than soothe, this time it intensified the pain and angered me.

“I need to sleep,” I moaned.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Aiden countered. “Diana, can you get Fallon some coffee?”

“Poison.” It was all I could think to say. Diana was bad. She did this to me. She couldn’t be trusted. She was going to kill me or keep me from turning. “Turning. Wolf. No Diana.”

“You’re not making any sense, babe. Just relax.”

Sleep called out to me. I closed my eyes again for the briefest of moments and teetered on the edge of consciousness. There, I could make sense of it all. But when I opened my eyes again it all went away.

“Here. Drink this.” Aiden held a cup to my mouth.

“Poison.” I was sure of it. “No!” I fought to turn my head. “It’s bad.”

“She’s really delusional.” The woman Diana spoke again. “I hope she snaps out of this soon. Poor thing won’t be ready for the transition if her brain is broken.”

“She’s a fighter. She’ll recover.” Aiden took a sip from the cup then held it to my lips again. “See? It’s okay, babe. It’s just coffee. You need to stay awake and alert to shake off the concussion.”

That’s exactly what she wanted. I’d figured it out. She didn’t want me to be a wolf. And she wouldn’t poison me outright. Not with Aiden standing right there. She’d wait till I was alone and weak. I needed to make a full recovery—fast. I gulped at the coffee Aiden offered. It burned my throat, which, while painful, also helped to waken me more.

“Atta girl.” I heard the smile in Aiden’s voice.

Once I’d gulped the last drop in the cup I looked up. My vision hadn’t cleared, but it was getting better. Diana stood behind Aiden, just to his left. She scowled and her eyes shot daggers at me.

I couldn’t believe that Aiden wasn’t seeing or sensing with his super wolf-abilities how full of shit she was. He actually appeared to be eating up her lies. Maybe he was just too overwhelmed with concern? No matter the reason, Diana getting away with this set my teeth on edge. I needed to find a way to remedy this problem.

I turned to Aiden and smiled. “I’m feeling a little better, baby. Thanks.”

“You had us all scared to death. Do you remember what happened?”

I shook my head. “Not really. One minute I was picking up my clothes and the next… nothing.”

“I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” He pulled me into his lap.

“Nope. You can’t, but she can.” I pointed to Diana, who still lingered annoyingly close.

“I can take the hint.” She smirked at me. “Hope you feel better. Would hate for you to have any further accidents.” I’m not sure if Aiden heard it, but I certainly caught the threat in her voice.

Aiden turned to Diana. “Stay close in case we need your help again.”

“Of course. Boss. If you need anything at all, you just let me know.” Diana smiled brightly at him.

It made my blood boil.

I watched her saunter away, relieved to see the tail end of her. I’d had my fill of that woman for a long while. All that sugary sweet “Anything for you, Boss” crap. I hoped my man was too smart to fall for it; but then again, he didn’t seem to be seeing through the bullshit. It would be up to me to stop her.

I turned back to my Aiden.  “Now let’s talk about making me a wolf.”

“One step at a time, babe. Let’s get you back on your feet.” He attempted to lift me, but my legs weren’t quite ready to support my weight.

“Just give me a little bit here,” I said, trying to hide the pain in my voice. Hurt or not, I needed to turn quickly so I would be ready for Diana’s next attack.

“Do you remember what happened at all?”

“Diana happened.” There was no smoothing out the hatred in my voice.

He scrunched up his face. “What?”

“She doesn’t want me to be your mate.”

“We’ll, I can understand that. I am the most eligible bachelor here on the wolf preserve.” He flashed a mischievous smile at me.

“Don’t flatter yourself. But seriously, she’s out to prevent me from being with you.”

“That’s silly. She can’t stop you from being with me.”

“She said”—I air quoted—“‘Not everyone survives the transition. There are ways to swing the odds either way.’”

“That’s impossible.” He shook his head and let out a sigh. “No one can mess with the transition.”

“Argue with me all you want. She claims she knows how. I’m just repeating what Ms. Diana told me right before she knocked me out.”

“And,
I’m
telling you that’s impossible, so don’t worry about it. She’s probably just trying to scare you. It’s up to fate to decide if you turn wolf or not.”

“Well, her slamming me onto the stone floor while my back was turned might have something to do with it. That’s a little more than trying to scare me.”

His jaw tightened. “I’ll have a talk with her.”

“You’ll have a talk with her?” That phrase just didn’t bear the weight it should have. “That’s your solution here? She just attacked me and instead of defending, you’re just going to have a friendly little chat?”

“Oh, it won’t be a friendly little chat. But she is pack. There are rules to dealing with these situations. I can’t punish her until I have all the facts.”

“How diplomatic.” I was beginning to be sick of the pack way of doing things. “Don’t bother. She’s just going to deny any involvement anyway.”

“Well, what do you want me to do? I won’t have someone threatening my mate.”

“You could have her euthanized.” I was only partly joking.

“Sorry, no. Our pack is too small; we need every wolf we’ve got. I could have her muzzled if you like.” He snuggled up next to me on the ground. “You want me to beat her with a rolled up newspaper?”

“I’d appreciate that, baby.” I giggled at the thought of her wearing a muzzle while Aiden stood over her saying “Bad dog.” His heart was definitely in the right place though it seemed the pack had his hands tied. “Really, I would, but this is my battle. I plan to take care of this myself.”

“You’re going to fight her for me?” He puffed his chest out a little.

“Don’t be cocky. I love you, baby, but this goes farther than that. She’s threatened my life. I’m going to put that bitch in her place.”

He nuzzled into my neck. “Do you know how sexy that sounds, Mrs. Alpha?”

“Yeah. But baby, my head is killing me. Can we take a rain check on that right now?”

“How long are you going to make me wait?” he purred in my ear.

“Just till the fire alarms stop blaring.”

“Oh, you poor thing.” He ran his fingers through my spiky hair.

“Don’t pity me. Let’s talk about my fur coat.”

“Wow, what a change. Yesterday you wouldn’t consider the idea, and today you’re practically begging for it.”

“I just want to get this over with.”
And then I can take care of that meddling bitch
. “What do we have to do, wait until the full moon?”

“No,” he chuckled. “The moon has no effect on the transformation. Our ancestors were pagans and used the moon for celebrations. We can do it anytime.”

I turned my head to look at him better. “Right now?”