Beneath a Blood Moon - Book Two (Moon Child Series)

Chapter Six

Amelia POV

I slam the car door closed and grip the steering wheel tight in my grip. Goddamn Luca, we had the same goal, why couldn’t he just let me do my thing? Speaking of the devil, he hops in beside me, his scent swarming my senses. I take off before he can even put on his seatbelt and hear him chuckle. I grit my teeth together and focus on the road ahead. I see him lean back casually in his seat from the corner of my eye.

“So, where’s the target?” I glanced at him quickly before returning my view to the road. I reached into my pocket and threw the piece of paper at him. He caught it deftly and opened it.

“The Crimson Rose? What is that? A strip club?” his tone was joking, trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t work. I was in a mood and nothing was going to change that. “Oookay.” Then there was silence. Half an hour later we were pulling into a grungy looking carpark located behind a whole street of pubs, all on a bit of the rough side, complete with creepy side alleys where graffitied garbage bins are. As we exit the car, we both scrunch up our noses at the strong smell of garbage, piss, and vomit. Sometimes it was a curse having such a strong sense of smell. I turned to Luca as he came around to my side of the car.

“Here’s the plan.” His eyebrows shoot up and his smirk makes me growl. “Stay in the alley, I’ll lure him out, we’ll knock him out and take him home. Got it?”

“Got it.” he makes his way to the alley way set to the side of the Crimson Rose; his nose scrunched in disgust. Part of me was laughing at his disgust, wanting to punish him. The other part felt guilty, but I pushed that down and headed into the pub. The smell of stale alcohol, body odour and bad bar food swarmed my nostrils as I walked in, heading towards the bar. I flagged down the barkeep and ordered a glass of beer. Sipping at the beer, I leant back in my stool nonchalantly, making sure that the dress I was wearing rose up high on my thighs. I knew my mark had a thing for blondes, so I’d made sure that my hair was cascading down my back, in loose curls. It didn’t take long for him to make his move. Men really were pathetic. It was funny how easy it was for me to predict men, know their every moves. All except one, that I just couldn’t get a read on. He was a mystery to me, and it was frustrating as hell.

His eyes fell on me from across the room and I gave him a demure smile from behind my mug, lowering my lashes to appear shy. My bait worked, now all I had to do was lure him away. I slid down from the stool, making sure that my dress got caught on it, showing off a little of my lacy underwear underneath, and then made my way to the door at the back of the building where it led to the alley. I leant leisurely against it, my hands laying behind me on the bar of the door. He stalked towards me, trying to seem alluring. It wasn’t working, but I acted like it did. He reached me at last and smiled, his hand resting on the door beside my head.

“Hi there, sweetheart.” I faked a blush and smiled up at him through my lashes giving him a shy ‘hi’ back. “You here for a good time?” His hand removed itself from the door to stroke my hair, his fingers deliberately brushing my breast. I hid my disgust with a sweet smile.

“Are you going to show it to me if I am?” His smile widened, like he’d won a prize. His hand grasped at my waist and pulled me to him. His smell made me gag inwardly, the smell of a rogue wolf. Burnt ash. I place my hands on his chest demurely and take a step back towards the door, grabbing the handle. If it was possible his grin widened, and he followed me as I opened the door out into the alley. He grabbed at my hand, spinning me around so my back was pressed against the wall, his hand landing on my ass and squeezing.

“Ready for the good time, sweetheart?” his hot breath fanned across my neck as he dipped his head down to kiss my neck. He didn’t have a chance to even think about it before a loud growl ripped through the quiet alley and he was falling to the floor unconscious. I glanced down in shock at the body of my target, and stared in equal shock as Luca cuffed him, before turning to me. His eyes were midnight black, his canines protruding as his lips snarled. My breath hitched as I was being pressed into the wall once again, but this time tingles shoot through my body where he touches me.

His lips claim mine and my eyes fly open wide in shock. I try to fight the sensation of his soft lips on mine, but then his tongue swipes against my bottom lip, begging for entrance, and my resolve leaves me. With a soft moan I let him in. Our tongues fight for dominance as his hands pull me closer, pressing our bodies ever closer. Fire was shooting through my veins at his touch and a soft moan leaves my lips once again as his hands slide beneath the skirt of my dress to clutch at my ass, lifting one of my legs to his waist, pressing me into his bulge. My head falls back, my breath coming in gasps as his lips slide down to my neck where he sucks and nibbles on the sensitive skin there. My hands tangle in his hair as he sucks on a particularly sensitive spot just above my collar bone.

A bucket of ice water is dumped on us as the shrill sound of Luca’s phone screams in the silence. I lean against the wall as the reality of what we’d just done hit me. My legs felt like jelly as I caught my breath, while Luca grabbed his phone from his pocket.

“What?” he growled into the phone, his frustration at being interrupted obvious in his tone.

“Geez, what’s up with you grumpy bum?” I could hear Mia through the other side and smiled as I indicated to Luca, I was going to get the car. He nodded distractedly, his hand running through his hair. I practically ran away, my heart pounding in my chest. As I hopped into the car, I leant against the steering wheel. What the hell had just happened? The passion behind his kisses had been like fire, burning through me. I thought he hated me, was disgusted in me even, and yet his kisses, his touching were so passionate and loving that you could have fooled me. And I thought I was supposed to be disgusted with him, but one kiss and I was putty in his hands. This feeling was unlike anything I’d ever felt before it was a need inside of me for something more than just hot s*x. It was the need for love. But could that be? With him? He was a wolf, natural enemy to my kind. Yet, after that kiss I was finding it hard to care.

I started the car and pulled into the alley where Luca loaded the guy into the backseat. I pulled myself together and tried to return to how I was before, cold, and aloof. Let’s see how long that lasts. I thought to myself. His scent almost undid me in seconds as memories linked to that scent now rushed before my eyes. Goddess help me.

The drive back was silent and full of tension, and I couldn’t be gladder when we pulled into the pack house car garage. I practically leapt out of the car, leaving Luca to grab the target from the back. Mia met me at the front door, her eyes questioning at my fast pace. I grabbed her hand and dragged her behind me up to my room, telling the Alpha we’d be back in a minute. I slam the door of my room behind us and begin pacing, leaving a confused Mia to watch me. A glance at the clock says that its almost 5:30 in the morning.

“Ok, that’s enough pacing.” Mia said impatiently as she grabbed my hand and yanked me to sit beside her on my bed. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I wrung my hands in my lap as I looked at my mate’s sister, and my new friend.

“Luca and I kissed.” Her squeal was so loud, my eardrums almost burst, and she flung her arms around my neck. “Oh my goddess! That’s amazing.” I softly pushed her back and stared into her beaming face, tears springing into my eyes.

“Is it?” her face changes to one of confusion as I fall back onto the bed, begging my tears not to fall.

“What do you mean? Isn’t this a good thing?” she laid down beside me, turning her head to face me.

“He doesn’t want anything to do with me, Mia. He only did it because of the mate bond. The guy we were collecting grabbed my ass, and his wolf obviously took control.”

“Oh.” She turned back to glance up at the ceiling as she fiddled with her cardigan. “are you sure it was just his wolf?” she asked. I nodded.

“His eyes were black, and his canines were out.” Mia sat up and turned to me.

“Was that before, during or after?” she asked. I sat up too and looked at her confusedly.

“Why does that matter?” she sighed in frustration.

“Just answer me please.” I thought back to the moment and felt a blush creep onto my cheeks and a stupid giddy smile spread across my mouth. But then I remembered the task at hand and turned serious.

“Before.” I said certainly. Mia pursed her lips and appeared to be thinking.

“Okay, but what about during or after?” I ran through the moments in my mind again, feeling a tingle run up my spine as I remembered his lips sucking and nibbling my neck. And remembered the absence of his canines as he did so.

“Well, when he was nibbling at my neck, I didn’t feel any canines.” Mia gagged jokingly and smiled cheekily at me.

“Ok, ew. Didn’t ask for details. A simple yes or no would have sufficed.” I smiled at her teasing and smacked her gently on the arm. “Anyways, so what you’re saying is, at the beginning his wolf was present, but during, he wasn’t?” I shrug and begin pacing again.

“I don’t know Mia; I was a little busy doing other things other than paying attention to whether or not his wolf was present or not.” I huffed frustratingly and ran my hands through my hair. She smiled sympathetically and stood, pulling me into a tight hug. I returned it just as tightly. She pulled back, her eyes going white and I realised that she was mind-linking with someone. A moment later her eyes returned to their normal emerald green.

“We better go, Seth is getting impatient. So is Luca. We’ll continue this later.” With a nod I followed her from the room, and down to where the men were waiting for us.

“About time, lets get this over with so I can get back to my mate.” The alpha grumbled as he led us down to the basement, where we entered a secret tunnel behind a metal shelf filled with tools. I followed behind the Alpha, Luca behind me. His presence was like a hot brand against my back and chills were running up and down my spine. I didn’t even care that he was a wolf anymore. I’d made that decision after my talk with Mia. His species was of little importance to me, what was, however, was whether or not he was going to claim me or put me out of my misery and reject me. Maybe he was waiting until after we’d managed to find and kill Adrienne so that it wouldn’t be too uncomfortable while we worked together. Either way, the uncertainty was driving me insane, and the memories of his kisses was making me shiver.

My thoughts were interrupted as we reached the end of the stairs and entered a foul-smelling area, full of cells, their walls made of bars of silver. We were led by the Alpha to the cell at the very end and a guard wearing gloves opened the silver bars. We all piled in and stood around the man from the bar, who was tied to a chair with wolfsbane soaked ropes weaved with threads of silver. His look of disgust as he saw me made me smile. He’d fallen completely for my act, and that was why I was the best at what I did. The man spat at my feet, eliciting a growl from both Seth and Luca. Seth stepped behind the man and grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking it roughly back.

“Talk, rogue.” He growled, his eyes turning a deep onyx. His Alpha aura vibrated through the air, unaffecting to me, but Mia and Luca clenched their fists beside them as they tried to withstand it. The rogue smirked up at Seth, before sneering. The words out of his mouth were in another language and I felt Mia tense beside me.

“Get out!” she shouted. Seth abandoned his grip on the rogue’s hair, and I turned to follow him as we exited the cell, running for the end of the hall. The air vibrated with magic and then with a loud crack, we were blasted by a wave of an explosion. I flew forward, and felt arms wrap around my waist, turning mid-air, and landed with an ‘oomph’ atop a large muscular body. My hands pressed against the hard chest of Luca, as our faces were inches from each other. My heart leapt into my throat at the feeling of him beneath me. His eyes held mine before they followed his hands across my body, searching me for injuries. When he saw I had none he sat up, and I did the same to avoid our lips crashing together. I glanced him over once and saw no injuries. He helped me to my feet as I saw Seth do the same with Mia.

“What the hell was that?” Seth growled as he stormed his way back to the cell, the bars completely melted and in a puddle on the floor. The chair that had once been in the centre of the cell was no more, and on the floor was a large circular scorch mark. Seth growled, his fist connecting with the wall, brick crumbling from the crater he had created. He turned to Mia, his eyes flickering between bright blue to onyx black as he tried to keep his wolf in check.

“What happened? How did he do that?” Mia knelt by the scorch mark, her hand hovering above it as her eyes fluttered closed. I could feel the soft vibration of magic radiating from her body as she concentrated on her craft. She stood after a few minutes.

“I don’t know how he did it, but that was a very dark spell he did. One that if not used right causes instant incineration of the user.” I stared at her in shock.

“And if used correctly?” I asked, curiously. Mia glanced grimly down at the floor.

“it would have incinerated us instead.” Seth clenched his teeth as he fisted his hands at his side. “Whoever gave him that spell knew that he was not powerful enough, or able to perform it correctly. I think it was meant to be like a cyanide pill.” Seth glances at Mia confusedly, his expression making me almost giggle. “In some movies when a spy is caught or whatever and they don’t want to be tortured or questioned they sometimes have a false tooth implanted where if they dislodge it and bite down upon it, they’ll instantly die. I feel as though whoever this rogue was working for, most likely Adrienne if this was a spell, knowingly gave that spell to the unknowing rogue. Hoping he’d use it thinking he’d destroy us, but in actuality, he would destroy himself.” She gestures to the scorch marks on the floor with a grim expression.

“That’s just messed up.” Luca said as he examined the scorch marks closely. Seth growled frustratedly.

“Well, that’s just great. Our only lead, dead! Now what?!” His anger vibrates in the small room making goose bumps rise on my arms.

“Alpha!” A man ran towards the cell and stopped at the door, his face serious. Seth gestured for him to continue. “There is an owl here for gamma Mia.” We all stared at him with bewildered looks on our faces.

“A what?” I asked, making the man sigh with frustration.

“An owl. For gamma Mia.” We stared at him a moment more before Mia shrugged her shoulders and gestured for him to lead the way. I followed close behind her. No way in hell was I missing this!

We took the path back up to the main foyer of the house and there perched atop the banister for the stairs was indeed an owl, preening its pure white feathers. Its big eyes turned of us making me shiver. Goddess, I hated birds. I saw Luca shiver too and smiled, before wiping it off my face, replacing it with a passive face. Mia walked to the bird and bowed politely to it. The owl in turn bowed back, before reaching with its beak to a letter sealed with a wax seal that was attached to its leg. It dropped the letter gently in Mia’s outstretched hand and waited patiently as she opened it. She silently read the letter to herself, holding us in complete suspense. After waiting too long I got impatient.

“So?” Mia glanced up from the letter a perplexed expression on her face as she handed me the letter. “Mistress Cordelia requests the presence of Beta Luca Greystone, Gamma Mia Greystone and bounty hunter Amelia Olena at the Midnight Wolf tonight at 12am. Sincerely yours Mistress Cordelia Mackenzie.” My eyes lifted too Mia; my eyebrow raised. “That’s oddly specific.” Luca held his hand out to me, and I handed him the letter to peruse.

“There’s no way we can go.” Luca said, handing the letter to Seth. “It could be a trap.”

“It could,” I agreed, “but it could also be a lead. What other choice do we have?” Seth’s face turned grim as he handed the letter back to Mia.

“You’re going. Keep an eye on each other. And Mia,” Mia glanced at him questioningly, “take Viktor with you.” With a curt nod he stormed off upstairs, probably to his mate.

“Well!” I said excitedly turning to Mia, “looks like we’re going dancing!” Mia clapped her hands excitedly as Luca groaned. She turned to the owl and bowed, and he was off. He vanished before he reached the door and we all stared after him. A moment of silence passed starting at the door before Mia and I shrugged and turned towards the stairs to decide on what to wear. We still had several hours until we had to leave for the club but being women we had to plan in advance. It would also give me time to really talk through my issues with Mia. I could feel the adrenaline of a possible lead rush through me as I rifle through Mia’s closet for something to wear. Tonight was going to be great fun.