Full Moon (17 page)

Guarding the perimeter, north side. Join me.

I’m coming.

I’m waiting.

I slipped out of bed. We hadn’t closed the curtains. Moonlight spilled in through the window across the beds. I could see Kayla sleeping, but Brittany’s bed was still empty. Where was she? What happened to her? I couldn’t shake this sense of foreboding that she was in trouble. Big trouble.

In my tank and shorts, I headed out of the room and down the stairs.

Once outside, I started running toward the northern perimeter. I didn’t shift, because right then what I needed was to feel human arms around me.

Rafe must have been tapping into my thoughts, because he was in human form, wearing a pair of jeans when I first spotted him. I slammed into him with enough force that he might have toppled over if he wasn’t so strong. He draped himself around me, and I could tell he was comforting me.

“Brittany is okay. You need to stop worrying,” he said before I could speak.

“Did you read my thoughts?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I tried not to, but your emotions were so intense that your thoughts kept bombarding mine.”

I leaned my head back.

“I can’t help it, Rafe. Something is wrong. If Brittany was okay, she’d be back by now. She’d want to show off. She’d be crowing. She survived when no one thought she would. So if she’s not here, she’s in trouble.”

“You don’t know that. There could be a hundred reasons why she isn’t here.”

“Name one.”

“It could take her longer to recover. When I went through my first transformation, I ached everywhere. I didn’t want to move for about three days.”

His words made sense and lessened my panic. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was worrying for nothing.

He skimmed his fingers over my cheek. “You care so deeply. That’s one of the things I love about you.”

I decided to put my worries away for now. Brittany would return to us and then I’d find out what happened. I’d give her a couple of more days and then I’d insist that we search more diligently for her—that we send out more than just a couple of guys.

But for now, as selfish as it was, I wanted to focus on Rafe. It was time to put him first, to give him my total attention. I told him, “I love everything about you.”

His grin flashed in the moonlight right before he kissed me.

I knew the dangers that we had to face were far from over, but for these few heartbeats, nestled within his arms, with his lips playing over mine, I knew that whatever we had to face, we’d face it together.

I couldn’t even remember now why I’d ever doubted that Rafe was my one true mate. I desperately wanted for Connor to find his own mate one day. I thought of him now as my first love. There was sweetness in that.

But it wasn’t as deep or binding as what I felt for Rafe.

Rafe and I shifted into our wolf forms, his dark fur a sharp contrast against my coat of white.

We guarded the perimeter as the moon began its waning phase. Eventually it would go entirely dark. We’d face our enemies then, during the new moon.

Little did I realize at the time that some of the enemies would come from within.

What I did know was that Rafe was mine and I was his. He had always been my destiny. Nothing would ever change that. Together we would face whatever the future held.

Cover art © 2009 by Gustavo Marx/MergeLeft Reps, Inc.

Cover design by Sasha Illingworth