Page 35 of Black Moon

Fuck.

I turned and headed toward Reid pack territory.

18

Colt

Ahand clasped over my mouth and squeezed. Hard. I’d dropped my rifle on the ground, but if this alpha expected me to go down without a fight, he was fooling himself. A knee to the groin was at least as painful as a jab to the stomach with a prop gun, and damn it, he was about to find that out.

I struggled under him, but the guy shoved me down, hissing, like he wanted me to shut up.

Glaring up at him, I snarled against his palm. Claws tipped my fingers, and I reached up and sank them into his shoulder.

Above me, he grunted. His eyes squeezed shut in pain, but he swallowed down most of the sound and shuddered, mastering himself after just a few seconds.

He didn’t attack me back. Instead, he pressed his weight down on me, his knee pinning down my thigh and his free hand grappling to shove one of mine back in the dirt.

There was no way I was throwing him off, not until he was distracted. When I finally went slack, he let out a soft breath, almost like a laugh.

But he didn’t force himself on me; he didn’t try and get a piece of omega before he dragged me back to his pack’s territory.

He let my hand go, shifted some of his weight off of me, and when I didn’t immediately start struggling again, the grip on my chin loosened a little. He didn’t lift his hand but leaned over me.

“Please be quiet,” he whispered right in my ear. “We are way too close to Alpha Reid’s place for you to start shouting. I promise, I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help.”

That didn’t explain why he smelled like a foreign pack, the sharp scent of wild alpha. And under that? A faint current of terrified omega—one that smelled like ozone and green apples and fear. The stark contrast between the comforting scent of the Groves and all that desperation put my nerves on edge.

But the man was right—I could practically sense the Reid pack not far off through the trees. If I shouted, the likelihood of the Groves getting to me first was pretty low. And if this stranger had meant to bring me home with him, he had every advantage.

Instead, he kept his hand pressed over my mouth until I nodded. He even smiled in relief when I didn’t start screaming.

When he got off me, the first thing he did was reach a hand out to help me up. With the other, he pressed one finger to his lips, as if I’d forget to stay quiet when the other option was meeting the rest of the Reid pack alphas. This one, at least, was either genuine enough to trust I wasn’t about to knock him out with a blow to the back of the head, or he’d lost his mind.

I picked up my prop rifle, shifted the strap of it onto my shoulder, and followed him as he snuck between trees, silent on the balls of his feet.

He led me to a cabin in the woods further from Reid territory. It looked like the poor-man’s version of one of my dad’s hunting cabins—somewhere you could go to get away. But it was completely dark inside, the roof sagging a little.

The alpha paused outside the steps down to the battered front door, and he held his hands out like he wanted me to stay still. Fair enough—absolutely no part of me wanted to go into a dark, abandoned house with a strange alpha alone. Already, I was considering chucking my wooden rifle at the man and making a run for it.

He went in, and I could barely hear him whispering, but I couldn’t make out the words. He was talking to someone in there, someone quiet.

Every hair on the back of my neck stood on end while I waited, and then the alpha came out again, something moving behind him in the shadows of the cabin, I rocked back on my heel, ready to spring away.

Only, out came another guy. There was a dark bruise across his cheekbone, his full bottom lip split in a violent red line. I saw the mark of teeth on his neck, bright and angry against his pale skin—a farce of a mating mark that hadn’t healed.

He was shivering, dirty, and I’d never smelled anybody that was this miserable.

“It’s okay,” the alpha whispered to him, reaching out to touch his arm.

His hand came up short. The omega behind him flinched, and the alpha gave me a puckered frown.

Finally, the omega’s bright eyes held mine. In a surprising show of stubbornness, he lifted his chin. His lips barely quivered.

“Who are you?” he demanded in a quiet hiss—even terrified, he realized how much trouble we’d all be in if the Reids caught us.

All the thoughts in my head scattered. Deep down, I knew who this guy was—he had the same bright blue eyes and dark hair as Shiloh Morgan, behind the bar, so worried about her brother.

Her brother who’d been taken by the Reids.

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