Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf (Black Swan 4) (27 page)

Since Stalkson Grey's ears were not entirely human, he had no trouble hearing that tiny hiss. In response his nostrils spread as she neared. He inhaled deeply and smiled.

During the following two weeks, Rejuvenata the Vergin, also known as Luna, and Stalkson Grey, both together and separately thought about little else than the next appointed time of meeting. Luna's sisters wondered why she seemed distracted. She was preoccupied during her healing rotation and absent from sign up for a turn with Deliverance on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons. To say that the Vergins were rarely absent on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons would be an understatement. Some of them lived from one of the demon's visits to the next.

Her closest friend, Sirenata, thought Luna was wearing a curious luminescent glow, but why should being visibly happy raise suspicion? They were supposed to be joyful in service to the Cult.

When Luna and Stalkson were together, they walked in the cover of the forest and, even though they were technically in the heart of a city, it sometimes felt as if they were alone. Grey hadn't realized he was lonely. He was never alone, in fact. He couldn't step outside his front door without being approached by someone who wanted or needed something. Luna didn't want or need a thing, but seemed happy to spend time with him for its own sake.

He wanted to know as much about Luna as she would share. She told him about how her parents had given her to the temple when she was five years old. She told him about her work with the Herb of Grace, about how she used it to cure ulcers, fevers, headaches, and rheumatism.

"So you like your work?"

She shrugged. "I never thought about it. I like making people feel better of course. I mean, you would have to be an awful person to not like that." She looked up at him to see if he agreed, but he said nothing.

He looked around. "Why is there never anyone here?"

"Here in the park?"

"Yes."

"We have two days to rejuvenate. On Tuesday and Saturday the park is ours and visitors, such as yourself..." She looked at him pointedly, "...are considered trespassers. The other five days of the week the park is crowded with people who come in need of many different kinds of healing. Some can be helped just by walking in the gardens and need nothing else to be better."

"Tell me about your family."

"We don't have relationships with our former families because it would interfere with the work."

"You haven't seen them since you were five?"

She nodded, but didn't seem bothered by that fact. The reality of her strange existence had long ago become normal to her.

Grey said he had lived in a wilderness area all his life, that when he looked at the tall buildings of the skyline above the trees, that life struck him as the closest thing to the myth of an eternal pit of fire.

"Oh. I don't know," she said. "Maybe it wouldn't be so awful."

"Crammed together like socks in a drawer?"

She laughed. "Socks in a drawer?"

He looked down at her bare feet in sandals. She wore toe rings in gold and silver designs that curled like the Celtic art of his world. He thought that even her feet and toes were beautiful, smooth and well-proportioned.

"You don't have socks. Do you?"

She grinned and shook her head and they laughed together in a way that signaled an easy and effortless companionship. Once, she stumbled over a tree root. Grey reached out to steady her, but she jerked back her arm out of his reach and righted herself on her own.

"We're not to be touched by the hand of man."

He opened his mouth to tell her that he was not a man, but thought better of divulging that particular bit of information at that time. Luna always stayed until Grey looked at his watch and said he had to leave. She would say goodbye and confirm that she would come again with a smile so fetching it made his chest feel tight. Then he would pretend to leave, but watch her as she walked back alone.

Stalkson knew that Luna thought of the temple complex where she lived and worked as home. He, however, saw it as her prison where she'd been taken and enslaved as a baby. Every aspect of her life had been decided for her. Where she lived, what she did, when she did it, what she ate, what she wore, where she went, and whom she saw. She was able to read a limited selection of books from the library and watch preapproved television and movies about the lives of laypeople, but she wasn't given access to any other sort of communication technology.

He doubted that she would agree with the analysis that she was virtually imprisoned, but the wolf in him wanted to howl at her to break free.

Twenty-eight days, the exact length of a moon cycle, had passed since the young males had been left on Shrifthet. The king was extremely pleased, but a little astounded that they had all managed to find girls who fell in love with them and agreed to go to Lunark. Even Harefoot O'Moors. Grey kept his opinion about the value of Harry's potential contribution to the gene pool to himself and trusted that nature would work it out.

Love had to be powerful to persuade people to give up everything and everyone they had ever known - forever - and face the unknown. But the boys had done it. They'd made humans fall in love with them. For a fleeting moment Grey wondered if he had it in him to do the same.

No doubt they had been assisted by the serious imbalance in the ratio of males to females, but still, they had done it. The young bloods had mates who were going to happily bear young werewolves and snuggle close to them on cold winter nights.

Deliverance had moved all the Elk Mountain immigrants to Lunark and was taking the last of the newlyweds. After that there would be one more stop on Throenark. Grey's heart seized. His hand went to his chest out of reflex because, for a moment, he felt like he couldn't breathe. He couldn't imagine not seeing Luna again, not hearing her laugh, not seeing her form a question in those exotic copper eyes. But that was exactly what was going to happen at the end of their afternoon together.

"You seem sad today. What is it?" she asked.

He stopped walking and faced her. "Will you do something for me?"

He saw that old wariness flicker across her features. "If I can. What is it?"

"Will you let your hood down and let me see your hair?"

She searched his face for a second or two before reaching up and dropping the hood so that it fell to her back. She pulled thick waves of mahogany tresses free and let them fall around her face and shoulders, watching him with a question in her eyes. Suddenly she laughed and it was his turn to look at her with a question in his eyes.

"I was just thinking about how much this is like the fairytale. You know, Red Riding Hood."

"Fairytale?"

"You don't know the story?"

He shook his head. She proceeded to tell an abbreviated version of the story as they walked and didn't cover her hair again with her hood. She ended with, "...except you're not a wolf, of course." And then she laughed.

She noticed that Grey wasn't laughing. "About that..."

He glanced at his watch. He'd run out of time. Deliverance would be waiting to take him back to Elk Mountain. The king's gaze jerked to Luna's and she saw unmistakable panic there.

"Grey. What's wrong?"

His mouth tried to work. "I can't." He swallowed really hard. "I can't leave you."

"What do you mean?"

Stalkson Grey, the great alpha king of the wolf people of Elk Mountain, master of self-discipline and control, who had never done a single impulsive thing in his life, crouched down, bent the Vergin over his shoulder and began running with her. It was only thirty yards to where Deliverance would be waiting.

Luna was so deeply stunned she would have lost her breath even if the action of being jostled by the uneven pressure of Grey's shoulder didn't rob her of breath. But before they reached the demon, she had recovered enough voice and presence of mind to raise a ruckus. She was also pulling his long hair in a way that was so painful he finally slapped her on the most generous portion of the curve of her derriere, which stunned her into silence again for a few seconds.

It would be hard to say who was more shocked by the scene that unfolded, Deliverance or Luna.

"Take hold of my arm and take us to Elk Mountain now. Hurry."

Deliverance just gaped at Grey. "Wolf, have you lost your mind?"

Grey was breathing hard and talking fast in the maelstrom of Luna's flying fists and kicking feet. "I have not lost my mind. I have found my mind.

"I heard your daughter tell you to help me get what I need and this is what I need. Her." Deliverance still balked in indecision. "Demon, I'm going to use a word I have never used before. Ever. Not once in my life.
Please
."

Not being able to argue with that, the demon grasped Grey's wrist and rode them through the passes right into the king's living room. Stalkson set Luna down on her feet and with a scream of outrage she launched herself at him.

"Well," said Deliverance. "I'll leave you to it, but, just so you know, there are no werewolves on Shrifthet. She's not going to believe you when you try to tell her what you are."

Luna grabbed for the demon. "You will
not
leave me here you..." And he was gone.

She wheeled on Grey with murder in her eyes. He knew he should be ashamed of himself. He knew there was nothing funny about the situation. But having her there in his own house, even with her looking like she would kill him the first time he went to sleep, was more pleasurable than anything in memory.

There was nothing about his attraction to her that made sense. It might even be insane. But it felt
so
good that he couldn't find it in himself to be sorry. He didn't want to smile as he faced the infuriated beauty, but he couldn't help himself. Naturally, that infuriated her all the more.

"You kidnapped me!" She reached for a wooden totem figure and threw it at his head.

He ducked. "I prefer to think of it as a romantic abduction."

She gaped. "
Romantic!"
The fact that she was alone with Grey and, perhaps, at his mercy seemed to creep into her awareness and onto her expression. "Where is this?"

"Elk Mountain." He looked around. "This is my house."

"It's freaking cold here. Do you know that?"

He looked at her bare arms and the thin silk fabric and remembered that she came from a balmy climate.

"Here. Let me start a fire and I'll get you some warmer clothes."

When he started toward the fire, she dashed for the front door. He grabbed her before she got there and pulled her back into his body wrapping his arms around her waist. The feel of her body pressed close to him and the aroma of her hair almost brought him to his knees. It was exponentially better than any of the thousands of times he had tried to imagine how it would feel.

"Luna. Listen to me. You're not in your world anymore. You're in mine. The demon brought you here for me. There's no place for you to go and no one to go to.

"You know me. You know I won't hurt you. I'll take care of you and I'll... care for you."

Luna knew the appropriate reaction was fear, but, oddly enough, she wasn't afraid. Angry? Definitely. But not afraid. As much as she wanted to hate the feel of his warmth pressing against her, she relaxed a little, deciding to play nice and bide her time.

"The last thing I want is to restrain you. If I let go, will you let me light a fire and get you something warm to wear?"

She nodded. Not nearly ready to trust her, Grey backed toward the hearth without taking his eyes away from her.

He lit the fire and put a mug of mulled wine on the hearth to warm. She followed without resistance when he took her by the hand to go with him in search of clothes. He covered her upper body by pulling a denim shirt lined with soft flannel over her robe then covered her feet, sandals and all, with heavy wool socks. When she started to feel a little warmer, she began to calm, but her eyes were still wide and her pupils were dilated.

Grey bade her sit by the fire and handed her the warm mulled wine. Without taking her eyes off him she took a tiny sip. A moan of pleasure almost escaped her throat, but she strangled it with a swallow. Within a couple of minutes the wine was working its magic. She was feeling warm and more relaxed.

"Are you hungry?" asked the king.

She shook her head.
"
Why did you take me?" Luna watched the shadows of the flames dance on his cheek and reflect hypnotically in his eyes while he formulated an answer.

"Did you like me? Before I took you?"

She hesitated, but decided to tell the truth. "You know I did."

"Right before I grabbed you, if I had told you that I would never be coming back, that you'd never see me again, how would you have felt about that?"