Page 76 of Taken by Moonlight
“The pain was excruciating. I couldn’t move, couldn’t howl, and couldn’t shift. I lay there beside the road, while everyone passed. They thought I was road kill. And then a car did stop, and a woman, a skin woman gotout.”
I could guess. Her name wasNatalie.
“She lifted me into the back of her sedan, drove me to a shifter vet. I was hospitalized with two broken legs, some internal injuries. Still, it was good that I lived. I thought at the time. Natalie came by every day, twice a day. Brought me fresh meat, made sure I was cared for. At the end of the two weeks, I was good togo.
I went home with her because I had no money, and she paid for the hospital bill. Figured I could find a job, pay herback.”
Alex shoved a trembling hand through his curls. “Natalie found out I had skills in managing money and stocks. I made an investment for her that enabled her to pay off the mortgage to show my appreciation for her saving mylife.”
A bitter laugh fled him. “Guess that was a mistake. I should have stayed on the road, died that night. Would have beenbetter.”
I gripped his hand. “Never, Alex. I’m glad you’re here, withme.”
He lifted my hand to his mouth, pressed a gentle kiss against my knuckles. Then he let my hand drop. “Seeing my skills with money and investments, she wasn’t willing to let me go. She told me I needed me to stay with her. I owed her. I… stayed. For twoyears.”
For a moment, silence draped between us. I squeezed his hand inreassurance.
“Was it… allbad?”
A grim look. “At first, even though she was controlling, it was not. The sex was amazing and frequent, enough to satisfy my raging hormones. And then she became possessive…and sadistic. When I shifted to run with the full moon, she tracked me down, threatenedme.”
I could not help speaking my mind. “You’re a shifter. It’s what your naturedoes!”
“I know,” he said softly. “But Natalie got crazy. About a year after I was with her, I shifted and went outside to run with the moon. When I came back…she cold cocked me. I woke up in a cage, naked. Cold.Bleeding.”
He held up his hand, showing his middlefinger.
“She’d cut it off. Said if I ever tried to leave her again, she’d take the butcher knife and cut off my dick as I slept. She kept me naked in that cage for a month, getting her kicks from torturing me, telling me that I was an animal and deserved to be treated likeone.”
Horror filled me. “She waspsychotic.”
“Yes.” He stared down at his hands. “She refused to let me shift. Said she would turn me into the authorities, tell them I raped her. The less I shifted, the more my wolf powers waned until I wasn’t certain I could shift again. She controlled every aspect of my life and put a shock collar around my neck to make sure I did not shift. Sometimes… she set off the Taser just for fun. Forlaughs.”
Shock collars were illegal. Didn’t mean that cruel humans couldn’t find them on the black market, and use them againstshifters.
“How did you manage toescape?”
A wry smile touched his beautiful mouth. He glanced at me. “Natalie never objected to me doing anything in skin. She would give me a stipend of cash to buy lunch every day when I went to the library to read. I found solace in reading… and in tucking away cash into various books I hid so they were never checked out. Two years after she first picked me up from the highway, I took the cash, stuffed it into my pocket and got on a bus heading west toWyoming.”
“That’s where you met Dante,” Iguessed.
Tension fled his shoulders. “Yes. I was in a state park on the night of the full moon when I heard wolf song. Sat on a fallen log to watch, and listen. I couldn’t shift, but my heart longed to join them. Dante was leading his people on a hunt, and he sawme.”
Thank goodness forthat.
“Dante took me into his pack, fed me, worked with me. He let me live here in skin and never pressured me to try shifting. He’s damn smart, our Dante. He knew that living in a pack, amongst my own kind, would bring out my wild wolf. It took six months, but I was finally ready to run wild and free with the pack. It was the most exhilarating sensation I’d felt since before getting hit by thatcar.”
Alex glanced down at his nude body. “I’m skinnier than most males. I’m not as quick or as fierce. At first I didn’t trust that Dante wouldn’t kick me out if I didn’t meet his expectations. But he was so damn patient, encouraging. Gabe as well. They became my bestfriends.
“Then I started to use my brain, the only asset I really had. I’m good at making money, Peyton. I tripled the investment income for thepack.”
A bitter laugh escaped him. “The only thing I’m really good at, though I’d give my life to keep the packsafe.”
I took his face between my hands. “That’s not the only thing you excel at, my sweet Alex. Thank you for trusting me with thetruth.”
I kissed him, deeply. When he kissed me back, I shrugged out of myrobe.
I went to find my iPod. I plugged it into the alarm clock and selected atune.
