Page 18 of Moon Destiny

Julia gasped and dropped her gaze, a deep frown between her dark brows.

The thing within me lifted its head. Emotion suffused me, and it didn’t come from me at all. The thing was…satisfied.

Footsteps intruded and then a familiar southern twang pierced the satisfaction humming through me. “Oh! Oh my, this is not good, ladies.” Warm hands gripped my shoulders and tugged me backwards. “Come on now, Brooke,” Dylan said, turning me around.

I blinked up at him. “Dylan?”

“The one and only.” He squeezed my shoulders, his brown eyes lightened to gold. “Get control, okay?” His tone was kind but uncompromising. There was no question he was issuing an order. “No challenges in the house. Hugh will have a shit fit if you break the furniture.”

Challenges? The only person issuing challenges right now was Julia. The thing stirring in my head roused again, urging me to turn around and finish what she’d started.

“Brooke.” Dylan’s eyes drew mine as his tone sharpened. “You hearing me?”

“Y-Yes.” Pain shot through my skull, as if I’d stared directly at the sun. Instinctively, I knew it came from him, and I dropped my gaze. “You can stop now.”

He chuckled. “You first.”

“I will. I mean, I am. I’m stopping.”

“Atta girl.” He gave me a firm nudge toward the opposite half of the room. “Go on over there and settle down, all right?”

“All right.” I went quickly, relieved to escape the pressure of his stare. On the way, I caught my reflection in the mirror above the dresser. Holy… My eyes were blazing. No wonder Dylan had hauled me away from Julia like I was an MMA fighter. I looked ready to commit murder.

Dylan faced Julia, all traces of playfulness vanishing from his voice. “What’s going on here?”

She lifted her chin, although she didn’t look him in the eye. “She shouldn’t be here. She’s—”

“That’s not for you to decide,” he said. “You have a problem with another pack member, you take it up with Hugh.”

“Maybe I will.” She darted a look at me, her blue eyes lit with malice. “Or maybe I’ll take it up with the Council.”

A deep, menacing growl rumbled through the room, making the hair on my nape lift.

Julia paled, and it was obvious she would have stepped back if the wall hadn’t been in her way.

“You do that,” Dylan said, his voice dipping into a register no human man could achieve. “Let me know how Hugh reacts.” He jerked his head toward the door. “Go. Quickly.”

She made a hasty exit.

Dylan stayed put for a second, his head bent and his broad shoulders rising and falling a few times. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see when he turned around, but he faced me with ordinary brown eyes and a smile I was coming to recognize. “Well, that was weird.”

I let out a startled laugh. “She seems nice.”

His smile widened, revealing a set of dimples that made it hard to reconcile his boy-next-door good looks with the stern werewolf who’d sent me scurrying across the room moments before. “Ignore her. Julia’s old and old wolves sometimes have antiquated ideas about turned humans.” He hesitated, giving me a look like he was trying to decide something. “I also suspect she might have a bit of a thing for a certain alpha.”

Oh. “I see. So I’m a threat because I’m female?” Ugh, that was a thing in the werewolf world, too? “Trust me, she can have him.”

He stared at me for a long moment. Just as my cheeks began to heat, he gestured to the bags on the bed. “Assuming there’s something good in there, you wanna bum around town for a bit?”

My jaw dropped. “Really?”

“Really.”

“But…” I glanced at the door and lowered my voice. “What about Hugh?”

“He’s spending the day at the office.” He flashed another grin. “So he asked me to babysit the new werewolf.”

Charming.

---