Page 24 of Luna Rising

“Eleven,” I said before he stopped me. “Talk to Lucca. Look, I get that it’s hard, but the sooner the better. You both need to understand the past. We all do. Do the Guerra’s have any skilled fae on the payroll, someone who could maybe spark the dreams for you?”

Did I feel a little like a hypocrite for advising her to do something that I refused to do myself? A tad.

Tish looked like a frightened rabbit. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Talk to Lucca,” Ewan said. “Tell him the truth. If he’s open to it, I can get you something that will trigger the dreams. Zara’s right, time matters right now. You need to go into hiding immediately.”

“Who’s hunting us?” Tish demanded. “If there’s a specific threat—”

“The Zodiac Councils,” I said. Tish deserved the truth. It was also the only way for her to understand the severity of the situation. The threat wasn’t idle speculation. It was very real, and it was very much coming for all of us. “They want to destroy us, and eliminate our bloodlines. I don’t mean to scare you, really. Except, I do because you should be afraid. This is serious, Tish.”

Her eyes focused on the ground for several long moments before she nodded. “I’ll talk to him tonight.” There was no fear in her gaze when it met mine. “The favor you wanted in my dream—you asked me to protect your daughter. To hide her. You trusted me then, and I am going to trust you now. But if you fuck me over, the Guerra family will be the least of your new worries.”

Alarm shot through my bond with Ewan. He worried that I wasn’t going to take kindly to Tish’s fighting words. Fair. Ordinarily, even before my turn, he would have been right to worry. I liked the fire in Tish’s eyes and her momma wolf behavior. She was fierce and determined and she had one very good reason to fight by our side. So, no, I wasn’t upset at her reaction. It inspired confidence that I hadn’t felt before coming to Tucson.

“Noted.” I grinned, flashing my fangs. “And if Lucca gets any bright ideas about turning me into the Leo Fae or the Virgo wolves or anyone else with a bounty on my head, Walter Stolly won’t need to ask me to rip out his throat.”

There was a tense moment of silence in which Ewan let me know how much he didn’t appreciate my big mouth. He refrained from lecturing me inside my head, but he radiated displeasure.

Tish finally laughed, breaking the tension. “Noted. Gaia, you really haven’t changed.”

“Yeah, so I hear.”

Tish agreed to call us after she spoke with Lucca and then retreated into the bar before her Walter-wannabe-of-a-boyfriend came looking for us. Ewan whipped out his phone as we departed the ally and dialed Winter.

“Hey. You ready to come home?” she asked.

“We’ll be at the spot in two minutes,” Ewan replied.

“See you soon.” Winter disconnected.

Ewan looked down at me, licking his lips. “We did our good deed for the day, time to get wicked.”

A Game of Packs

“How’d it go?” Winter demanded, even before we’d fully exited the portal. “What’d she say? Does she know what she is?”

She clutched a steaming mug between her hands, green eyes bulging alarmingly as she peppered us with questions. Ewan plucked the cup from her grasp and put it on the table.

“You might want to chill on the coffee,” he suggested. “Is there a reason you’re drinking caffeine after dark?”

A toilet flushed, and then I heard water running in the downstairs bathroom. Several seconds later, Birch walked out into the living room.

“Is there a reason you think I need a babysitter after dark?” Winter’s hand went to her hip, and she stared at Ewan expectantly.

The two men exchanged glances. Until that point, I’d thought Birch’s presence was just Ewan being overly cautious. Now, I wasn’t so certain. I tried gauging Ewan’s emotions through the bond, but that didn’t really tell me anything. He wasn’t afraid for Winter, yet he’d asked his third-in-command to sit with her while we were gone, unbeknownst to me.

“You’re the only female eternal. You’re valuable,” Ewan reminded her.

She made a face. “Ew. You make me sound like a pawn. I thought we were friends.”

He ran his hand through his hair, growing exasperated. “I meant, a lot of people are looking for you and they won’t think twice about invading my territory to get you.” His gaze sharpened. “Isn’t that why your father has his bodyguards trailing you? How’d you get away from them to come up here?”

Her cheeks flamed red. “First of all, his name is Walter. Please, for the love of Gaia, only refer to him that way when speaking to me. Second, Walter is making up for twenty-two years of absence by being a helicopter parent. And, thirdly, I made a portal from my bedroom to your living room, obviously. I’m a dimensional fae, remember?”

Birch watched the exchange, an amused smile threatening to materialize on his otherwise bored expression. Ewan glanced at him as if pleading for an ally. He shrugged, as if to say, “You’re on your own.”

“Does no one in this room care I’m alpha?” Ewan threw his hands up.

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