Page 1 of Marked By Moonlight
Chapter 1
Lumi
“On the count of three. One, two—”
“No.”
“No?” I ask.
Kael chuckles nervously. “We’re not going to kiss on the count of three.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s weird. It’s not how it’s done. It’s not romantic. Kissing is supposed to be more spontaneous than that. You kiss someone because you can’t not kiss them. The draw to them is so strong that it overpowers any other senses, and all you can think about is kissing them.”
“Hmmm,” I say, thinking about what he said, and sit back on my heels as we kneel in the forest before the full moon.
“What are you doing?” he asks after a moment.
“Apparently waiting for you to be so drawn to me that it overpowers you, and you kiss me.”
Kael chuckles again.
“What now?” I snap.This isn’t going how I hoped this would go.
“Nothing—you’re just funny, Lumi.”
“No, I’m not your funny friend. I’m the attractive woman you want to kiss and go all beast man on.”
My words make him laugh harder.
I sigh.This is never going to work.
No, it has to work. We are all out of options.
“You take the lead if you don’t like how I’m handling this then!”
Kael goes silent for a second. “I’ve never kissed anyone either. I don’t know how this is supposed to go.”
We both stare up at the moon—the one thing to which we are both drawn. The one thing that should be our salvation, and yet we can never tap into its full power. We’ve never felt what it’s like to unleash our wolf selves and run free through the woods, letting our instincts take over. And it’s all because of the curse.
Kael pulls his eyes down from the moon, and I can feel him looking at me. It’s dark, so I’m not sure how well he can see me, even with the moonlight slipping down through the branches of the trees. He only has normal human eyesight, while the one wolf trait I possess is enhanced vision at night. The wolf vision allows me to make him out perfectly.
Kael is a good-looking man. Even if he can’t shift either, he keeps himself in shape. His biceps bulge against the fabric of his black T-shirt, and his legs are long and lean. He’s stronger than most humans, even if he isn’t in wolf shape. But the man looks like a beast of thick, shaggy brown hair that hangs over his hazel eyes. He’s desperately in need of a haircut, but it does make him look younger than his thirty years and closer to my twenty-one.
He smiles softly at me with his boy next door charm. As the only member of the pack who’s even close in age to me, we’ve grown close over the years. Now it’s time to see how close.
I reach out to his chest in the darkness and run my finger down his thick muscles. My lips part as I imagine what lies beneath his shirt. I’ve seen him shirtless plenty of times, and Iconjure up a memory in my head that leaves me drooling and needing to lick his swollen pecs. My eyes begin to hood, and a single word escapes my barely parted lips. “Please…”
“Lumi, I—” he begins the same speech of how we shouldn’t do this, the one he’s given me a million times before.
But I’m tired of it.
I close the space between us and press my lips against his, as if I’m drawn to him as much as I’m drawn to the full moon.
But I miss, or he moves. I’m not sure, but my kiss lands on the side of his jaw.
He freezes.
