Page 58 of Broken Moon

I’d thought—hoped—tonight wouldbe the night I was given my freedom by the alpha of the Gray Shadow Pack. Butapparently, tonight was the night I would kill the alpha of the Stone MoonPack.

I’d needed a reason and achance. He was handing me both.

My anxiety fled as I preparedquietly and quickly. I was cold, dark, and emotionless. I didn’t call Jared asI donned my stab vest—it wasn’t going to save me from the alpha and hiswarriors, but it could buy me time—because calling him for backup might get mymother killed. Adam Thorne knew what he was doing.

I found it strange that hedidn’t just come after me. He could have sent killers after me any time duringthe last twelve years, but he hadn’t. He could have sent his warriors to pickme up, but he’d completely ignored me—until now. Still, he didn’t seem to havemurder on his mind.

Too bad for him that I couldn’tsay the same.

I didn’t usually carry my gun—arevolver loaded with silver shotshells—but I lifted it from its case on the topshelf of my closet and despite the alpha telling me to leave my weapons athome, I buckled on my gun belt and slid it into its holster.

By the time I got into my car,I was loaded down with weapons—blades and silver stakes, mainly. Silver mightweaken a wolf a bit, but it needed to be inside him to do any real damage. Icould stake a wolf just like a vampire and though that might not instantly killhim, it would come damn close.

I’d sent Ash to sleep with Lucywhen I’d begun preparing for Jared’s visit, and when I quietly left the house,neither of them stirred. If she’d heard me leaving, Lucy would simply havethought I was heading out with Jared.

Fucking Adam Thorne was goingto cost me my shift tonight. That was reason enough to end the bastard rightthere.

Did I really think I could killthe alpha? Nah. Not really. He was alpha for a reason—and I was a wolf whocouldn’t shift. I was also still weak and wounded from my encounter with theexsoloup, but I wouldn’t let any of that dim my confidence. If the chance came,I couldn’t hesitate. We were on his radar now, exactly as my mother had feared.Until we were Jared’s wolves, we were fair game.

I remembered how no one hadstuck up for us the first time Thorne had messed with us. Part of me—a hugepart—was afraid Jared wouldn’t interfere now. Not that I could have asked himto go with me. Adam might not want to kill me, for some reason, but I couldn’ttake a chance that he wouldn’t kill my mother. He would hurt her, at the veryleast.

It took me an eternity to reachmy mother’s house. After I turned off the engine, I sat in the dark of the carand one by one, I forced myself to take off my weapons and leave them in thecar. Even my gun. Especially my gun.

I kept two blades—the blade I’dmost used before I’d taken the demon blade, and the demon blade. I figured Adamwould let me get by with bringing a couple of blades to the meeting, but he’dhave taken my gun immediately.

Everything was quiet and dark,and I wondered where her housemates were. As I walked up the stone path towardher front door, two of Adam’s warriors stepped from the shadows.

I tensed and reached for myblade, but I didn’t pull it. “Where’s my mother?”

“The alpha is waiting,” one ofthem said. “Come with us.”

So they hadn’t roused theentire house, which meant they wanted things to remain quiet. If they’d plannedto kill me, they would have snuck up on me like the assholes they were and slida blade into my heart. Maybe.

The night was cold, but nothingto a wolf. Still, I shivered. The night sky seemed vast and so high, filledwith stars I couldn’t really see in the city. I glanced up as we walked,wondering if I would live to see the next full moon. It would be arrivingbefore the month was out, and if Jared had given me my shift, that moon wouldhave finally pulled my wolf out with her light. What a gift that would havebeen.

“Stop it, Princess. You’re awarrior. No more whining.”

I nodded, as though my fatherwere beside me, training me, forcing me to be strong. Maybe he’d known allalong I’d need a little extra something. Maybe he’d had a feeling. He’d onlycalled mePrincesswhen I’d shown weakness or pain. It was hisequivalent to “sissy” or “crybaby,” and I did everything I could to stop himfrom saying that word. I’d wanted so badly to make him proud, and I still did,even if he wasn’t really there to see.

Even though I’d been young whenI’d been forced from the pack, I hadn’t forgotten the two wolves walking besideme. Edgar and Greg, brothers who looked enough alike to be twins, though Edgarwas a couple of years older than Greg.

They’d been the ones who’dstood behind my mother and me, forcing us to stay put and watch as Adam Thorneand my dad had shifted and begun to fight—although “fight” was the wrong word,really. My father had been beaten by Adam’s warriors, and by the time he’dfaced the alpha, he was already too far gone to do much.

It hadn’t been a fight. It hadbeen a slaughter. I still remembered the sounds of that battle, the brightnessof the blood, and the sounds and smells of the crowd. The entire pack hadwatched the alpha punish Daniel Silver for betraying them. They’d cheered,filled with rage and contempt, as my father had died.

Edgar and Greg had refused tolet my mother hold me or cover my eyes, and in the end, she’d broken down andgone a little crazy, screaming and clawing and sobbing, but I’d remained stoic,my stare on my father, my back stiff. It was what he’d have wanted.

As far as I knew, he’d been theonly wolf to ever attempt to gather forces against Adam Thorne. Adam had made agory and effective example of my father and the few wolves he’d convinced tofollow him.

Adam might have been anasshole, but he was a powerful asshole.

And finally, for the first timesince the night he’d killed my father, I stood in front of the alpha. His facewas at once familiar and strange, and for a few seconds, I felt like the lasttwelve years had never happened.

“She has a couple of blades,”Greg said. “You want us to take them?”

Adam smiled. “No,” he murmured.“We’ll let her keep her little knives.”

My ex-alpha was a good-lookingman. He was the kind of “bad boy” that made a woman want to tame him, or,despite the fact that she knew it would never happen, to make him fall in lovewith her. I’d heard that countless times over the years—even my mother had saidas much. And seeing him now, as an adult, I realized it was the truth.