Page 18 of Feral Moon Rising
The face I didn’t recognize turned toward me, but I couldn’t focus on him either—on anything, really—once we hit the street level, or somewhere beyond it. None of it mattered. Nothing did.
Chapter Nine
Blake
The bathroom was empty.
“The fuck did she go?” Gray seethed, shoving his way past me.
“The door wasn’t locked,” I said. My fingers went numb, then my cheeks. “She’s not here.”
But I just checked on her. My entire body ached, the pains increasing with the distance from her. Panic built as I surveyed the empty space that only confirmed what my mind already knew.She’s gone.
But no part of me believed that Lottie had run from us. Sure, we freaked her out a bit. Or she freaked out on us. Either way, that was okay, because I would have sworn when I left her in the bathroom a few minutes before, she was just fine.Fine, fine, fine.
“The hell did you say to her?” Gray’s hand closed around my throat as he shoved me back against the wall.
I didn’t bother to fight him. I needed her back as much as Gray but at least he had their mating mark to tether them together. I had nothing.
Whose fault is that?
“I—nothing.”
Gray’s fingers tightened, constricting my airway. The last time he did this we were playing. This time, his eyes reflected death. Whose was unclear but I was in his sights for messing with our girl.
“I told her about us. All about us,” I croaked, pushing the air out. If I was going to die by his hand right now for my sins, then he needed to hear what I said so he would know how to track the girl I must have scared. “I was trying to show her the depth of your love and protection. I didn’t mean for this to scare her...” I choked as my vision wavered, though that was from tears at the thought of hurting Lottie, not fear of Gray’s rage.
Distress I hated seeing on the alpha’s face turned my stomach into a writhing nest of unwelcome parasites.
“We have to find her,” he vowed. “Fuckingnow.”
“Please,” I gasped as his hand opened. I dropped to my knees, sucking in air as he walked away, already shifting. “God, yes.”
Gray’s panther form headed for the fire escape as his human bulk shimmered into a lithe black cat, though no domestic moggie ever looked like him. Following his lead, I let my beast roam free. The snarl that twinged my vocal cords too low for my human body to cope with hurt but I didn’t care. Pain was a small price to suffer for what I’d done if it pushed Lottie away.
I’ll find you, sweetness. I’ll bring you back. I’ll beg you to stay.
