198
Peter
I hushed her, holding back the desire to taste he lips again. Not now. Not yet.
"Thank you for a wonderful evening," I murmured against her lips. “I look forward to our next date.”
“Me too,” she whispered, leaning into my arms.
I barely suppressed a shudder as I took a deep breath of her scent and squeezed her close.
“I’ll take you to sushi next.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That’s… raw fish, right?”
I chuckled. “So it is. Feel adventurous?”
“Baby steps, please,” she said, her eyes sparkling.
“Raw steak?”
She paled, and I laughed, pulling back. “Get some rest, Michelle, before your sister comes out to maul me.”
She shook her head. “Good night, Peter.”
“Wait.” She turned back. My stomach churned. “I meant to ask you something.”
She tilted her head.
“Would you be my date for the Crescent Moon Festival?”
Her eyes widened, but the look of pleasure on her face was unmistakable.
“As long as you don’t feed me something weird.”
I grinned. “Nothing but regular steak to be had there… I’ll call you to make shopping arrangements?”
She nodded shyly and whispered another goodnight before slipping inside.
I couldn’t stop grinning. I caught sight of someone on the upper floors watching and waved like a fool before getting back into my car. As I rode back through the night, an urge began to grow. Something was pushing me to tell her to forget it. To not contact her again, to not let the joy of the night fill me so completely.
I clenched my hands on the steering wheel and pushed against it.
Why? It made no sense, especially considering how much I had enjoyed our evening together.
My odd interest in Lucy made no sense either. She was barely legal, and I knew nothing about her. The urge kept pushing at the back of my mind until I arrived home.
I nodded at the staff and headed up to my office, trying to parse through my feelings. Arriving back at my office, the dim light illuminated something on my desk—Lucy’s hairpin.
It glinted almost maliciously in the light. My heart quickened, and my emotions turned into a tumultuous whirlwind.
I heard someone speaking in a whisper at the back of my mind. My hands shook. It was familiar, like something else pulling at me.
Someone else telling me to do something.
The last time I sent a message about Lucy being the Moon Goddess. I thought maybe it would serve me to stir up more chaos between Oren and David, but this time, there was nothing in me that said that I should listen to it.
“Alpha, welcome home,” my beta said, coming up behind me. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” I said, crossing the room with measured steps. “I have a few tasks for you. I will need appointments at a few formal wear boutiques for a woman. Her name is Michelle.”
“Will you want to be fitted then as well?”
I smiled at the thought. “Yes.”
I picked up the hairpin and turned to him. “Find a good sushi place in Blood Moon’s territory.”
“Of course.”
“And destroy this,” I said, handing it to him.
“Of course, Alpha.”
“That is all. Thank you.”
He left, and though the door closed behind him, the urge didn’t fade. I sank into my chair, searching for the place in me where that urge was coming from, and tried to grasp it. The more I tried to make sense of my feelings, the more they eluded my grasp.
They were resisting me.
I clenched my jaw. They were resisting me because they weren’t mine.
I got up. Something was happening to me. Some sort of spell, hex, curse, or otherwise. I grabbed my phone and pressed the call button.
“Odd for you to be calling from your office at this time at night,” he said, his voice sleeprough. “I thought you had a date tonight.”
“I did. It was lovely. Come to my office.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
I shuddered, pushing at the feeling as it told me to hang up, to call Michelle and cancel, to call my beta back before he could destroy the hairpin. I dug my heels in as pain started to pound in my temples. I clenched my fists and tossed my phone to the other side of the room just as a knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” I said gruffly.
The door opened as Vasil walked in, the Black Moon Pack’s liaison. He was a witch from a smaller coven, but his ambition and his skin were unmatched.
I turned to him. “What the hell is happening to me?”
His eyes widened. “Other than you gushing blood from your nose and eyes?”
I reached up to the warm, sticky trails down my face. The dizziness made me swoon. Then, all I saw was him coming towards me, casting a spell over me as everything went dark. As the world drifted away, I swore I heard a woman’s voice.
Obey me!
Perhaps it was hours or even days later. I hoped it was only hours later as the dim morning light streamed through the window and seemed to be blinding me. My eyes stung at the sight, and I turned over.
“You awake?”
I grunted. My ears were ringing as I turned to look at Vasil. He looked pissed off, more pissed off than when I’d come home as a wild teenager with a broken leg and a bloody nose. My lips twitched.
“It’s been a while since you looked at me like that.”
“How the hell did you let yourself get into this state?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
Vasil huffed. “You’re not exactly cursed… no more than any other werewolf is, but there is a link in your mind that’s got a pretty nasty hold on you.”
I frowned. Was that what had been happening to me?
“Can you take it out?”
“Not without killing you,” Vasil scowled. “I can see it there, but I can’t tell how deep or widespread it is. It’s… practically integrated with your mind.”
I sat up slowly, feeling dizzy. “What are my options?”
“Keep fighting it. Keep aware of it. Try to saw away at whatever is powering it. You have any ideas?”
I glanced at the door and then back to him. He cocked an eyebrow and waved his hand through the air, casting a bubble of light around us.
“You remember when I came back from the twins’ mating ceremony?”
He scoffed. “You were unimpressed and…”
He frowned. “Weird. Definitely weird.”
“Do you remember me acting that way before?”
He shook his head. I nodded.
“You have more than a faint idea about what’s going on, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Lucy is the Moon Goddess.”
His eyes bulged. “How could you know that?”
“Contacts. They saw the crescent moon shape on her chest when she shifted.” I rubbed at my head, willing the ache to go away. Vasil leaned forward and gave me a potion.
“I hate these.”
“Too bad.”
I drank it, letting the numbness wash through me. It dulled the ache, but it didn’t kill it.
“You think she’s done this on purpose?”
I shook my head. “She seems just as clueless about it as anyone else, but I think she’s connected somehow.”
He nodded, and he stood. “I’m going to get you an anchor.”
My jaw dropped. “I’m not a child.”
“No, but if whatever this is makes blood gush out of your nose and eyes and pass out, it's dangerous. You’re magically depleted, among other things. When Anira gets back, I’ll have her look at you.”
I groaned and lay back. “I don’t like it, but thank you.”
“I don’t like you dead. Relax. I’ll get you some food. I’ll even read you a story if you’re nice.”
“Asshole.”
He chuckled and laughed as he left. I stared up at the ceiling, clenching my jaw. How long had that link been there? Had it been cast then, or was it just dormant waiting to arise? How long had it been controlling my actions?
Maybe it had been the real reason I had pulled away from Michelle.
The thought left me feeling vulnerable and uncertain, a sensation I was wholly unaccustomed to. I had always prided myself on my control, on my ability to compartmentalize my emotions and do what needed to be done. Yet here I was, faced with a turmoil that defied all reason.
My hand shook with the need to call Michelle and tell her to forget it, but my phone was nowhere to be found.
Vasil came back with a tray, and I looked at him.
“It wants me to be away from Michelle,” I told him as the pain seemed to grow, pushing at the numbness of the potion. Vasil dropped the tray on the table and grabbed a wad of tissue. “Don’t give me my phone back.”
He frowned and glanced to the side before nodding. “You have my word. I won’t let this thing cockblock you.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
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