Page 50 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

Nissa sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Sorry, sir. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to speak freely after being reprimanded.”

Everyone else at the table studied their plates as if they’d discovered the likeness of the Virgin Mary in their scraps.

“Really?” I tilted my head. “This is how you wanna play it?”

“She’s a doctor, Conall!” Nissa’s sentence resonated through the room and reverberated in my ears. “I can’t just ignore that fact.”

“Then I guess I’ll tell you the same thing you told me after I warned Tyrese that I could make him disappear with the snap of my fingers.” I met her gaze. “Back off, or I’ll make you back off.”

“It’s different, and you know it. She’shuman,” Nissa spat, with more hatred than she’d used during our discussions about witches.

It felt as though she’d gouged a dull sword through the center of my chest. I’d expected that to be thrown in my face eventually, but not from one of my closest friends. “A damn good one, at that. I suspected a handful of the pack elders would object, but I never dreamed you’d be so narrow-minded.”

Lightning flashed in her brown eyes. “Narrow-minded? How dare you, after everything we’ve been through.”

“Right back at you, Niss. We could fight about this all day long, but it won’t fucking change anything. When it comes to who I choose to be with, you don’t get a say.”

“The Council does.”

Talk about a punch to the gut. The Grand Werewolf Counsel oversaw all shifters, affiliated or not. They were powerful, their resources vast, and they considered themselves supernatural royalty. They only meddled in pack business when it suited them. Or if they had something to gain.

They hadn’t intervened when a coven slaughtered my family and former pack, or when Nissa was being used as a guinea pig. Going to them would bring extra scrutiny to every one of our members, as well as put a giant target on my back. Worse, Nissa was well aware how much I blamed and despised them.

“Wow. Bitter insults, blind judgments, and planning a coup, all before noon. Here I thought you, Diego, and I formed this pack to be different—that we formed it without the help of the Council because we couldn’t rely on them.”

Nissa set her jaw. “Yeah, well, I thought you always had my back, but then you brought a doctor into our inner circle. As if that weren’t bad enough, at the height of the greatest danger we’ve ever faced, you went out gallivanting with her instead of ensuring the protection of your people.”

My temper flared, and I stood, palms braced on the table as I forced Nissa to absorb every extra inch. All the strength, muscles, and power. I barely withheld letting my eyes flashgold, unwilling to go there, even though she sure as shit hadn’t held back. “Kerrigan saved Justin’s life, and she’s doing her damnedest to save Elias as well.

“Elias wouldn’tneedher to if you’d been here.” Nissa hurled that insult like a javelin to my chest.

I’d beaten myself up plenty but was working to come to terms with the harsh truth that I couldn’t be everywhere always.

“If having the doctor here is going to endanger our people further,” Nissa continued, “chasing her out of town is a sacrifice I’d be willing to make.”

A destructive tornado of emotions whirred within me. Sorrow. Betrayal. Panic. Doubt. Anger. I clung to that last one, allowing it to conceal and overtake the rest. “What about me? Am I expendable? How about Tyrese? Should we appoint someone to decide who in the pack lives and who dies?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nissa said.

“Why? Because you’ve already got carte blanche on the subject?”

“That’s rich coming from someone who’s willing to risk tearing the pack apart for a woman he barely met. Do you honestly think I’m the only one who feels this way?” For the first time since we started arguing, Nissa glanced at the other three people at the table. “Tell him, guys. Tell him I’m not the only one.”

Undoubtedly, Kerrigan could sense the meeting hadn’t gone well. A simple matter had progressed to my front line relaying the multitude of reasons my relationship concerned them. I’d wanted to argue, but several of them hit too close to home.

As I walked her outside of the main complex, my body weighed a thousand pounds. Fucking birds chirped in the branches over our heads, way too happy. Must be nice to only worry about where to fly next and catching the occasional worm.

Once we reached Kerrigan’s car, she dug the toe of her shoe into the dirt. “What is it? I can tell something’s wrong.”

I raked my hand through my hair, wishing I could pause this moment before everything went to shit. Strike that—I’d rewind to our time in the cave, when nothing else existed besides Kerrigan and me.

But that wasn’t a fantasy I could indulge in.

It wasn’t even a reality I got to indulge in.

“This thing between us was just supposed to be a fun escape,” I said, my words scraping my throat and coming out raw. “But now everything’s getting so complicated.”

Immediately, Kerrigan withdrew into herself, hugging her arms around her middle, same way she’d done yesterday. Only difference was, yesterday I’d been able to make it right. “I can see how you’d assume it’d be easy after I let you finger me on a carnival ride.”

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