Page 70 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

Ten long, fuchsia fingernails gripped the hood hiding the intruder’s face. A shiver skated down my spine as she lowered the velvety hunter-green material, and lucky me, I’d just met my first witch. Curls the color of champagne framed her alabaster skin. She cocked her head and pursed her pearly-pink lips, the slight lines that formed around them hinting she was older than I originally assumed.

“Not what I expected the alpha’s mate to look like, considering all the fuss. I’m actually impressed that beauty’s not the only thing Conall cares about.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Oh, good. I’d found my voice in time to insult the witch who’d obviously come to kill me. Stellar survival skills, I had them. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter, because I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong girl.”

There. Much better, and I prayed I sounded convincing. It was hard to tell with the loud droning coming from the sigil trap—and I had no doubt that was this.

With a cruel smile that sent shards of ice into the marrow of my bones, she stepped through the circle as if it were merely funky-colored air. I took a step back, and crackling electricity nipped at my skin and lifted the hair from my scalp. I wasn’t sure I could take one more shock and get back up again. Maybe if I bided my time, I’d find the right opening.

The woman caught my chin in her hand, the sharp tips of her nails piercing my skin. “Hmm. There’s such a fine balance when it comes to proper motivation. Personally, I like to err on the side of more is more.” She raked her razor-sharp talons across my throat, one quick slash that left me gasping for air.

Then she just stood there, looking disgusted by me as blood ran a trail from her fingers to her elbow. The warm liquid coated my neck, oozed down the front of my shirt, and dripped onto the floor.

The world swam, and I swayed and braced my hands on my knees.

Searing pain.

A sanguine puddle slowly spreading beneath me.

Sir Pounce’s green eyes blinking at me from underneath the couch.

It should hurt more. Dying. I thought it’d be different somehow.

“Hurry,” I heard, a voice in the distance. Female. A mix of agitation and alarm. “He’s coming.”

Conall.

Of course he’d come for me. If I could speak, I’d yell at him to stay away. To save himself and the pack—not that he’d listen. I loved that about him, even during the moments it also drove me crazy.

Picturing his rugged features filled me with serenity, despite my blurring vision and my body’s spasming death throes. I wished I could run my fingers through his hair as he sniffed me. Wrap my arms around him and kiss him one last time. Remind him that I’d always be his family, regardless of our time getting cut short.

Conall had shown me what it was like to be loved by a powerful man who occasionally verged into beastly territory.He’d let me in to his heart with a ferocity I’d never experienced before, and I wished it wouldn’t hurt for him to lose me.

It seemed almost lavish to have been loved so unconditionally by three amazing people. I hated to let go of Conall, but at least I’d be reunited with Mom and Grams soon.Sorry, my love. I promise to watch over you as you take on the coven.

Kick witch ass for me...

Just don’t let it make you bitter.

With that final thought, I crumpled to the floor like a marionette whose strings had been snipped, allowing the darkness that’d come for me to swallow me whole.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Rage and furyreplaced the blood in my veins.

As a guy who’d memorized Kerrigan’s scent, smelling it along with the sharp copper tang of her blood left me on the brink of insanity and contemplating throwing myself on over. My stomach roiled, and the wave of hysteria that crashed over me just about sent me to my knees.

“I should’ve never let her out of my sight,” Sasquatch said, and I turned, gripped him by the front of his shirt, and roared in his face.

His expression remained unchanged. Not because he was being his usual stoic self but because there was too much self-loathing in his features to allow for anything else. The same emotion whirled into the tornado currently wreaking havoc on my insides.

Seconds. I’d missed her by fucking seconds. My internal organs collapsed on themselves, my body threatening to shut down from the pain.

After that phone call, I’d asked around the compound, desperate to find Kerrigan. I’d followed her scent to Gina’s place and from there to the parking lot, letting loose a howl at findingher car gone. I’d barked an order to Nissa to check in with Gina and then shifted and tore a trail to Kerrigan’s cabin, Sasquatch and Tyrese hot on my heels.

At the circle of light near her cabin, I’d pushed my body to my limits. My lungs screamed for oxygen and still I’d pushed, relishing the sight of the wide eyes of one of the witches as I crested the hill.

I’d take a bounding leap, stretching out my fingertips and grazing the hem of a dark cloak’s...

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