Bite of the Moon: Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance Boxed Set (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kane said his goodnights to the third-shift patrol, his shoulders aching with tension. He'd lied and then lied some more. Fudged paperwork. Conspired with Danielle to cover up what had happened at his parents' house until, officially, it was a hunter with a malfunctioning rifle, too much alcohol, and a bad temper. They'd put in the report that he'd run off without being identified. Of course his parents would know that wasn't what happened, which meant he would have to lie to change the story with them.

He hated every second of the deceptions forced on him. Danielle didn't seem to be a fan either, her mouth pinching tighter and tighter with every detail they changed or made up.

The phrase 'necessary evil' came to mind. His whole life, he'd lived on the right side of the law and hadn't been one to ever believe that the ends justified the means. Becoming a werewolf had changed all that. Good was bad, bad was good. These days, his moral compass spun fast enough to take flight.

Kane didn't regret the latest round of lies, though, no matter how much they made his gut ache. He would do anything to protect Charlotte. She'd saved his life. And Tao was right, they couldn't risk anyone else deciding to come poke around Glen Vine to see if they could find any shifters to kill. Secrecy was paramount. Whatever it took, they had to stay off the radar.

Leaving the station with one last wave to the clerk at the front desk, he headed for the parking lot. Sinking into the driver's seat of his Charger, he just stared up at the night sky for a second. The moon glowed silver above him and he felt its light stir his wolf. He understood, for the first time, that he was connected to the world in a whole new way. The moon pulled on him and formed his fate. There was no use fighting it. He was a werewolf, and pack had to protect pack. This was what it took to survive.

His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts. He fumbled to pull it out of his pocket, frowning when he saw his mom's number flash across the screen. With a sigh, he answered. "Hey, Mom."

"Hey. I hope I'm not calling too late. It's just I didn't hear from you after you left and I got worried. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. The guy got away though, and I've been at the station doing paperwork." He decided to get it over with, and give her the new story now as opposed to later.

"He got away?" Fear laced her voice.

"Don't worry. He won't come back."

"How do you know?"

Kane snorted. "Because he was a drunk, angry fool. I don't think he even knew where he was."

"But you said he was after Charlotte." Now she sounded confused.

"He was an old boyfriend of hers." Kane started his car and pulled out of the station's parking lot. He could tell this conversation was going to take a while, and he might as well multi-task. "He's been bothering her for a while, but I think we scared the stalking out of him tonight."

"Oh. I see." She hesitated for a second, and Kane could tell she was about to change the subject to one he probably wouldn't like. "About Charlotte..."

"What about her?" He couldn't keep himself from growling at the judgment in his mother's voice.

"She seemed...nice."

"She is." He turned into the gas station and hopped out of the Charger to pump some gas.

"It's just...well, is there a reason why she was dressed like a hooker on steroids? And being so rude? I mean, I've known her and her family for
years
, Kane. She's never been like that before."

"I thought she looked great," Kane said, tapping his foot as he watched the gas meter.

"You would," his mother sniffed. "Call me old-fashioned, but the Charlotte I saw tonight is
not
the kind of woman I hoped you would marry."

"We're not getting married," Kane said after a moment's deliberation.

There was stunned silence on the other end of the phone followed by, "What do you mean you're not getting married? I thought—"

"You thought Mrs. Harris knew what she was talking about," he said, cutting her off. "Well, she doesn't. She's the biggest gossip in Glen Vine, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't believe a word she says. She could read from the Bible, and I still wouldn't believe her. She has a way of twisting things until they make trouble. Charlotte and I are friends. That's it. So don't get your hopes too high, Mom."

"Oh." His mother's voice was soft. "Why did you bring her home then and parade her around like she was your girlfriend?"

"Because you started texting me about meeting her and Charlotte thought it was a good idea." The meter stopped and he returned the nozzle to its hook.

"I see, so you lied to me." His mother's voice became clipped and her hurt feelings throbbed in Kane's ear.

"I told you the truth first, Mom, but you didn't want to hear it." His heart clenched in his chest. He hated hurting his mom, but he also had to get through to her or else there would be nothing real about their relationship.

"All right." She went quiet for a long moment and then sighed. "Okay. I hear you now, loud and clear, but why did
you
bring her home, Kane? You say it was because
I
wanted it and Charlotte wanted it, but why did
you
do it?"

"Because..." He trailed off.

"Kane," his mother said, her tone chiding. "No lies this time."

"Because I like her. I kind of like her a whole lot." He slapped a palm to his forehead. Oh crap. Why had he said
that
? Flustered, he said, "I gotta go. Talk to you later. 'Kay. Bye." He disconnected the call and shoved his phone into his back pocket. Well, hell. He'd just told his mom he liked a girl. She would be insufferable now. Especially once Charlotte stopped with the girlfriend-from-Hell shtick. Damn.

"You okay, man?" The gas station attendant leaned out the glass door, his expression curious.

"Yeah. I'm good," Kane said with a start, realizing he'd been standing in the middle of the gas station long after he was done pumping gas. He looked past the attendant, his gaze falling on the freezer section, which was well stocked with ice cream. Taking it as a sign, he went inside. Maybe the night could still have a sweet ending.

***

A little later, Kane knocked at the front door of Charlotte’s house. It was past midnight, and he knew she was probably asleep, knew he would drag her from bed, but he couldn’t wait for breakfast. For one, he’d had too much coffee at the station and the caffeine hadn't worn off yet.

Two, he didn't want to be alone and three, he had about ten pounds of ice cream that needed eating. His mind was a mixed up jumble of Charlotte, the hunter, and his mom. He wouldn’t be able to sleep until he sorted it out. Besides, he wanted to check on Charlotte and make sure she was okay after everything that had happened in Tao's garage.

He knocked again. "Charlotte? It’s me, Kane."

A dog barked, and Midas' face appeared in the narrow window that flanked the front door.

"Hey, Midas," Kane said in his friendliest voice.

That earned him a growl and a howling bark.

"Well, excuse me." Kane growled back, and the dog froze for a second, his eyebrows high and ears perked. Midas woofed again, sounding a bit uncertain this time.

Kane leaned down until they were eye-to-eye. "Yeah, that’s right. I’m a bigger, badder alpha than you."

The yellow lab huffed at him and dropped his gaze out of respect.

The door swung open and Charlotte blinked at Kane, her eyes bleary with sleep. She looked adorable with her tousled hair and a short shirt that barely reached the tops of her thighs.

Leaning against the door jamb she asked, "Are you talking to my dog?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." Kane ran a quick hand through his hair and put on his most charming smile. He knew he didn't look anywhere near as good as Charlotte, but he hoped he held some appeal. "Hi. I know I said breakfast, but I couldn't stop thinking about ice cream for some reason." He held up the bag in his hand. "You made the whole flavor sampling thing sound like so much fun."

She rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Late," he said. "I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to go home alone. Not tonight. And I hate the idea of you by yourself after everything that's happened. Can I come in?" He gave her his best puppy dog eyes, which made Midas growl at him again.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Charlotte shushed the dog and, grabbing him by the collar, she opened the front door wide. "Sure. Come on in." Earlier, she’d wanted to be alone, but now that Kane was in front of her, she felt the need for his company. Plus, there was ice cream. No matter how bad life got, ice cream was always good.

"You got spoons?" He held up his shopping bag, the cylinder shape of the pint containers visible through the blue plastic.

"Yeah. In the kitchen." She waved for him to follow her.

They sat at the small table to the side of the large kitchen. Charlotte put Midas in the laundry room again while Kane took the ice cream out of the bag and set it on the table.

"How are you doing?" Kane asked.

She shrugged as she dug through the silverware drawer looking for spoons. "Okay, I guess. I still can’t believe it all happened." She closed her eyes as a vision of the moment she’d taken someone’s life filled her mind. Then with a deep breath, she shoved the memory far away from her conscious mind. With some effort, she forced herself to stay in the present.

"It gets easier," Kane said as he pried the lids off the ice cream.

"Why? Have you killed someone?" She plopped in the seat across from Kane and handed him a spoon.

Kane sighed and poked at a pint of chocolate ice cream with his spoon. "Yeah. My first year as a cop."

She gave a sympathetic wince. "Did it suck as much as killing people because you’re a werewolf?"

"I don’t think it’s ever easy, no matter what the circumstances are. But you get past it. You figure it out and move on." He popped a spoonful of the chocolate ice cream in his mouth.

"What happened?" She pulled a pint of strawberry cheesecake toward her and stabbed it with her spoon. Finding it rock-hard, she set it aside and focused on Kane. Despite the fatigue shadowing his eyes, he was still handsome enough to make her heart speed up. She took a deep breath to steady herself. No matter what anyone said, they were just pack mates, right?

"My partner and I busted a gang member with a kilo of cocaine in his backpack. He was on a motorcycle, making a delivery from Chicago." Kane paused for a moment, a distant look in his eyes. "We missed his back-up piece and he started shooting at us."

Her eyes widened."Wow."

"More like ‘oh, shit.’" Kane chuckled. "Anyway, my partner was in front of me and the bullet would’ve hit him in the chest. I pulled my weapon and shot the guy first."

"You saved your partner’s life."

"I know. And you saved mine today."

She fidgeted in her seat, knowing he was correct, but still not feeling right about causing someone’s death. Picking up her spoon, she twirled it in the ice cream, slowly skimming thin layer off the top.

"It’s true, Charlotte." Kane reached out and covered her hand with his. "You can’t regret saving someone’s life. You were a hero today."

"I don’t want to be a hero," she said, her voice soft. "I want to be a librarian, damn it. I like books, not turning all fangy." Charlotte looked at him with sudden horror. "Do you think...are we going to get hairballs and stuff like that?" She gagged just thinking about it.

"No. I think that's more of a cat thing." He waved a hand. "We're more related to dogs, right?"

She slumped in her chair, struck by a new thought. Something worse than hairballs. Way worse. "Do you know what happens to dogs?"

Kane shook his head and gave her a questioning look.

"Their anal glands get all stopped up, and you have to take them to the vet and get them expressed." She wagged a finger at him. "They stick fingers up the dog's ass and squeeze," she pinched her fingers together, "to fix it. Midas goes in every couple of months so they can clear him out. It smells like rotting zombies."

Kane set his spoon aside and swallowed hard. "I...umm...I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen to us. Tao would've mentioned something about it by now if it was a problem."

"I hope you're right." She crossed her arms and worried her bottom lip. "How would we go to the vet for that anyway? Take turns shifting and playing each other's owner? Can you imagine?"

"We're not dogs, Char. We're werewolves and that's a whole different category." Kane's voice rang with certainty. "It'll be fine. And anyway, we can’t go back. This is who we are now." His mouth a determined line, he picked up his spoon and ate some more ice cream. Swallowing, he said, "You know, I replayed that traffic stop over and over again. It kept me up for months."

"How did you ever sleep again?"

Kane thought for a second, and then said, "I realized it was inevitable. At that moment, someone was going to die, and I made sure it wasn’t me or my partner. Obsessing about it wasn’t going to change anything." He shook his head. "And you’d better believe I practically strip searched suspects from that day on. My partner was the one who patted the guy down, but we both learned to be more thorough."

"That guy paid a hell of a price to teach you that lesson," she said, filling her spoon with more ice cream.

"Yeah, but he didn’t have to pull the gun. He had a choice, and he opted for murder." With a heavy sigh, he added, "The deaths that are going to bother me are those two men the hunter killed."

"It wasn't your fault," Charlotte said.

"Maybe not directly, but I left them there and, because of me, they died." He stared into his ice cream. "It's not a good feeling."

"Like you said, you can't go back. We both have to let it go, I guess. I'm just not sure how." She sighed and poked at the chocolate chip cookie dough with her spoon. Now that she'd stopped thinking about anal glands, her mind was full of the man she'd killed. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block it out. It was a good thing Kane was there. As always, he made things better.

Kane took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Straightening up in his chair, he said, "I say tonight is the first step forward. Talking about it helps, I think. I feel better at least."

"Yeah, me too." She gave him a small smile and resumed eating her ice cream, forcing herself to think of nothing but eating it. "Sugar doesn't hurt, either."

Kane switched from chocolate to birthday cake ice cream. "Mmm. This is amazing. Have you had this?"

"No, not yet." She looked at the carton with interest.

He held the pint out to her and she took a scoop.

Swallowing, she said, "This tastes like a birthday party."

"Lots of icing," Kane said. "Mmmm. I love icing."

"Me, too."

Their spoons hit each other as they both went in for more. They laughed, and Kane's gaze caught hers, full of heat that made her flush.

Charlotte broke eye contact first and reached for the strawberry cheesecake ice cream. "Do you ever feel normal again after something like that? Or are you forever different?"

"It took a while, but I did move on. So you will get past this. Just try to focus forward, don’t let yourself get stuck in that moment. It was what it was. You can’t change it, and you shouldn’t let it change you. Go be a librarian if that’s what you want."

"And a werewolf." She shoved a huge spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, wishing it could numb the bitterness that welled up inside her when she thought of her future as a werewolf.

"It is what it is. I didn’t plan on spending my life howling at the moon, but here I am."  He ran a hand through his hair. "Shit. I’ve lied at work to cover all our hairy asses. It’s crazy."

"I never thought about that." Charlotte gave him a sympathetic look.

"Yeah. I’m keeping secrets from everyone." He paused and his gazed settled on her. "Everyone but you."

"I'm honored, I guess."

"We’re in this together, you know? And," he cleared his throat, "I don’t want to let you go."

"Meaning?"

He pushed his chair back and stood. Coming around to her side of the table, he pulled her up and against him. "I want to kiss you. I want your scent in my nose, and your body wrapped around me."

"You do?" She gave him a hard look. "What about all those girls in your phone?"

"They were from before I met you." He fished in his pants with one hand and pulled out his phone. Handing it over to her, he said, "See for yourself."

She went to contacts and scrolled through. The list of names had shrunk by more than half. "You deleted them?"

"Yeah." He took the phone from her. Angling the screen so she could see, he scrolled down to W and then to her name, Charlotte Wills. "And here’s where you are."

She peered at the phone screen. "Oh, wow. I don't know what to say. You did that for me?"

"I would do more than that, if you let me." He held her gaze for a second and she had to look away, unable to withstand the desire burning bright in his dark eyes. "I know you were mad about all those girls. But I met them only because I hadn't found you yet. If I'd met you first, your number would've been the only one in my phone."

Clearing his throat, he continued, "I gave you your own ring-tone, too." He tapped the screen and wolf howls filled the kitchen. There were two of them, going back and forth. "I heard about them online. They're from Yellowstone. They've been mates for over a decade and never leave each other's side. Her alpha was caught in a trap, and she not only fed him so he wouldn't starve, she went and found a park ranger to help. She saved his life. Just like you saved mine."

Charlotte’s breathing hitched. This was possibly the sweetest thing any guy had ever done for her. He'd really put some thought into it. Something she'd never seen from her ex, who treated her like she was a pizza he could order in whenever he felt like it. "Thank you, Kane," she whispered.

His hand cupped the side of her face and he dipped his head down until their eyes were even. "Talk is cheap. This is so much better." His lips descended on hers and fire raced from her mouth to sear the rest of her body. She’d always known Kane was hot, but his touch was like an open flame, dancing and licking over her as it burned.

"Oh, Kane," she breathed.

"Shh." He shushed her and then deepened their kiss. His tongue stroked hers, and his teeth nipped at her bottom lip, which he followed up with sucking the whole thing into his mouth. Charlotte’s knees went weak and she pressed into him, leaning into his strength.

After a moment, he pulled back, his breathing ragged, his eyes dark pools of seduction. "What do you think? Can I be part of your plan?"

Charlotte froze for a moment, considering his question. Her ex had never kissed her like that. She couldn’t even call what Kane did a kiss. It was more a brand, one that marked her as his. She could deny it all she wanted, but it wouldn't change the fact that deep down in the dark place where her wolf lived, she wanted him.

It might be a disaster. It was probably a bad idea, but that didn’t matter. They'd been through too much to
not
be together. Instinctively she knew they needed each other. It wasn't just about attraction, it was about healing and holding each other up until they could both stand on their own again.