Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Noah
I scrabble up the mountainside. Something tangles in my hind legs, catching me, pulling me back…
No. Fuck.
It’s the sheets bunched, snagged between my legs. I sit up in bed with my heart pounding, sweat soaking my hair.
I need to shift and let my wolf run with a desperation that’s driving me more and more mad.
I have nowhere to run in Manhattan. No pack to hunt with.
Brick Blackthroat may have hired me, but he hasn’t invited me to join his pack.
I don’t think it’s because I’m deaf–the entire executive team learned ASL to speak with me.
Moon Co is an inclusive company. The Blackthroat pack seems progressive, perhaps a result of being led by a young, successful alpha.
I suspect my exclusion from the pack has more to do with etiquette. I gave offense to them by not presenting myself for inclusion the moment I moved to Manhattan. I was keeping my options open, hoping to get in with the Adalwulfs.
Go back to sleep, I command myself. My wolf won’t get to shift and run this week. Probably not this month. I went home to Kentucky over Christmas, so at least I let him out then.
Before I slide back into the dream of hunting, I picture the waifish she-wolf with the long, moon-pale hair and skin as luminescent as starshine. I’d rather dream of her.
The Adalwulf princess.
The one I saw from a distance at Blackthroat’s wedding. The one who came to me in a dream.
Find me before it’s too late.
Trying to conjure her when I’m in hypnagogia is my favorite pastime.
I slip back into the place between sleep and waking. I’m on a hunt, chasing a deer. Then prowling around a stone mansion. Then I’m in a dark bedroom.
It worked! This is where I’ve seen her before. Where she seems to be a prisoner. I saw the way she stood behind Aiden Adalwulf, hands clasped, head bowed like a servant. Every time I remember it, I want to tear Aiden’s throat out.
She sits up in her bed. She’s exquisite.
Slender and slight, her platinum blonde hair tumbles across her shoulders, which are bare, save for the tiny satin spaghetti straps holding up a cotton cami.
Small breasts rise beneath the fabric. She looks a little too thin–like she’s been starved into submission.
The dark brown blanket on her bed is a basic rough wool, like a camping blanket, chosen for function over beauty.
Her wide blue eyes stare straight ahead, unfocused. I remember what Billy told me–she’s the new Adalwulf Seeress. Perhaps she’s having a vision.
Is it of me? Does she project these visions to me? Is that why it feels like I’m in two places at once? It feels like I’m right there, in her cold, harsh bedroom, but when I reach for her, my hands close on air.
Aster. I try out the name Billy had given me for her at the wedding. I don’t know whether I actually speak it or say it in my head.
Either way, it pulls her out of her reverie. She jerks in surprise, her soft pink lips part, eyes suddenly focusing right on my face.
My heart pounds. Excitement is pumping through my veins.
Aster. That is her name.
You know me? she says, but her lips don’t move. She projects the words into my head again.
I nod. My fingers move to sign, I saw you–outside the Blackthroat wedding. You got out of a limo with Aiden Adalwulf.
She doesn’t look at my hands but seems to understand my words just the same.
Stay away from me. I don’t hear her voice, but words lay themselves across my mind.
Stay away. She wants me to stay away. Does she know that I intend to hunt down their Moonborn?
The vision slips away. I’m out on a hillside staring at my paws.
No!
I will myself back to her bedroom by imagining it. I need to find out what she means to me. What she knows.
I find myself not in her bedroom but staring into the face of Aiden Adalwulf. He’s on some kind of ridiculous throne. A metaphor? Or does this asshole truly put himself on a stone throne in his dark palace?
He looks down his nose at me with disdain. I watch his lips move as he speaks.
The Tiara of Ix-Chel is coming to the Gem and Mineral Museum in the City on Thursday. I will arrange a special viewing for you to see it up close.
I stare at him, puzzled, but then I realize he’s not looking at me but at Aster.
He’s saying something else–I miss it because I was looking her way, but her lips move to form the words, Yes, Alpha.
The dream or vision vanishes, and I’m in my tiny apartment. It’s dawn. I throw the blankets off and surge to my feet with mad purpose.
The museum. Today is Thursday. The dream must have been guidance from the Moon Goddess.
Fate is leading me to the Moonborn. A sense of satisfaction surges through me as I yank on my joggers and shirt for my morning run around Central Park.
I can’t shift, but at least I can run off the aggression.
This morning, I’ll probably sprint the entire six miles.
I’m going to find the Adalwulf seeress. She’s the key. I know it.
I remind myself of her warning to me the last time I dreamed with her. The war is coming. You must decide which side you’re on.
What if she’s appearing in my dreams to seduce me to pledge fealty to her pack? She’s an Adalwulf, after all. They are a dark, twisted, devious lot.
But isn’t that what I wanted? My entire plan revolves around infiltrating the Adalwulf pack. That’s why I came to the city and worked so hard on my degree and all the credentials that would make me a great candidate for Adalwulf Associates.
Except they didn’t hire me, and now I work for their enemy, Brick Blackthroat.
A twist of misgiving moves through me. I haven’t been taken into the Blackthroat pack, but they’re honorable.
Brick is an admirable leader who has fought and overcome huge hurdles to hold his pack strong. Betraying them doesn’t feel right.
But I didn’t come to Manhattan to ingratiate myself with the Blackthroats.
I’m here to get in with the Adalwulfs. For revenge. For justice. And because they may still hold someone precious to me. Not Aster although something in me longs to protect her.
No. I’ve been working toward this purpose my entire life. I can’t let a growing loyalty to Brick Blackthroat and his pack thwart my designs. They aren’t my friends. They aren’t my pack. They are just people I work for.
I step outside and hit the pavement running, trying to ignore the knot of misgiving that wars with the unquenchable need to meet the Adalwulf’s new Seeress.