Page 61 of Taken by Moonlight
Knowing him, it was the best answer I could hope for now. I gestured to the barn. “Want to show meinside?”
He pushed a hank of hair behind my ear. “I’d rather show you the stables and then we canride.”
His dark gaze twinkled. “Unless you’re too sore toride.”
“No.” I drew in a breath. “I’mgood.”
“Have you ever ridden ahorse?”
“Once or twice.” I suddenly didn’t want to let him know my knowledge around horses. I could have secrets aswell.
“I’ll have you ride Sadie. She’s sweet, gentle and we let kids as young as four rideher.”
“Thanks. It’s nice being compared to a four-year-old.”
Dante licked his mouth again, his tongue slow and deliberate. “I wouldn’t compare you to a four-year-old, mysweet.”
He cupped my right breast in his hand, the move proprietary and arousing. He thumbed my nipple, and thensmiled.
“If we keep this up, the only ride you’ll have on the ranch will involve you getting naked,” hemurmured.
A stable hand went to saddle Sadie, but I went to the stall of a beautiful chestnut mare. She pranced about her enclosure, her ears flicking forward. Belladonna, the name plate read. Cute. The horse was anything but a sedative, even though the name meantbeautiful.
“I’ll ride her.” I turned to the stable hand. “Please saddle Belladonna forme.”
The shifter stared at me and shoved his hat back. “Sorry, miss, but Bella here has a spirited streak. Not forbeginners.”
Belladonna poked her head over the stall door. I stroked her nose. “I think we’ll be good friends. Saddleher.”
Dante cocked his head, but said nothing as the stable hand led her out and saddledher.
Soon Dante and I were out riding on a trail close to the river. He showed me the gardens the pack kept. They grew their own vegetables and sold part of the crop to skins in town. Most of it theyconsumed.
He talked about the ranch, and about how every pack member had a role. Some didn’t work on the ranch, but in the nearby city. The ranch even had its own water system and sewage system, so it was fully self-contained.
Other werewolves in the pack ran a day care for the young whose parents worked. Everything seemed efficient and orderly, like a small city, only with less people and more openspace.
Much as that fascinated me, I wanted to know about Felicia. Her aura had pulsed with vibrant green and girlish pink, but flickering through them was indecisive and dangerous gray, meaning past trauma. I sensed she was a soul worth knowing, but also one to be careful around, much like a dog that adored petting, but alsobit.
“Tell me about Felicia.” I flicked the reins. “What happened toher?”
Dante threw me a quick, startled glance. “What do youmean?”
“I saw her aura, all thosecolors.”
He flicked a fly off his mount’s neck. “Your ability to read shifter auras, how honed is it, Peyton? Can you tell what a shifter is feeling? What their pastis?”
I sensed this line of questioning went deeper. “Usually, unless they’re trying to hide something. But it takes a lot of skill for a shifter to hide their auras from me. Most can’t. I read the colors and the pulses of colors like a doctor would read a medical chart. Colors are emotions, and then I go deeper. Humans are actually easier because they’re simpler. Shifters are complex, animal and humanDNA.”
Dante’s shoulders tensed. His aura now vibrated with unhappy black and miserable dark gray. And beneath those colors, I saw the other patterns of colors…and thetruth.
“She’s your sister,’ I saidgently.
His head shot up and he looked at me through narrowed eyes. “How do youknow?”
“Your signatures, your color patterns, have asimilarity.”
Dante sighed. “Yes. She’s the only close relative I have left. Felicia is special, though. She was kidnapped from our family when she was thirteen, and lived with humans in a zoo for eightmonths.”
