Page 68 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

A tormented cry burst from his lips, along with a spurt of blood. He fought against his restraints, drawing out his suffering, but he’d been crystal clear how he felt about other people’s problems before, and this was all his.

“Stop, stop, stop,” he rasped with a wet-sounding wheeze. “I’ll talk.” I retracted the claws but didn’t release my hold on him.

“I’m a private investigator. I was hired by a coven of witches. I watched the Crescent Pack for about a week, and after reporting what I’d found, they sent me here to gain information on Conall Shaw and his Bridgewater Pack.”

The scowl remained cemented on my face as I vacillated on whether or not to believe him. Tony had turned a one-eighty rather quickly. That was the goal, but he’d also made it a point to use my name and imply he knew all about me. I decided to tug on the thread and see what else I could unravel. “To what purpose?”

“They gave me a big enough pile of cash that I didn’t ask, and they didn’t tell. Now that I’ve been caught, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you do to me, they’ll do worse.”

“It almost sounds like you’redaring meto prove you wrong.”

A creepy grin split his features, and he laughed.Laughed!“Honestly, I expected you to catch me sooner. Someone’s been distracted with a certain female lately, hasn’t he?” His laugh morphed into a cough, and my heart ceased beating as the words sank in. “I knew I was pressing my luck prowling around your woman’s house last night, trying to dig up information to earn me a bonus. I think I scared her, considering she slept with the lights on. All the better to watch her sleep.”

A roar ripped from my mouth as I let go of the chains and caught him around the throat. Blood trickled from where my claws punctured the skin beneath his jaw. “Did you tell them about her?” I shook him, hard enough the rattling of his teeth and bones filled the air. “Did you tell them about Kerrigan?”

I shouldn’t have said her name, but this man would never see the light of day again, and too much panic flooded my system to focus on anything else.

Perspiration beaded his forehead, and the color drained from his face. “The failsafe spell the witches placed on me when we signed the contract is about to take effect. Once my heart rate drops low enough”—he attempted to snap his fingers, but his depleted strength failed to create the clicking noise—“poof, it’ll be lights out for good.”

A lie? Unlikely, although his vitals had dropped enough I couldn’t be sure. “Why tell me anything, then?”

“If I’m gonna go out, I might as well take the famous Conall Shaw’s ego down a couple of notches. I informed the witches you were the tougher, superior of the two alphas, by far. It’s more satisfying than I expected, seeing genuine fear in your eyes. Knowing that I’m the one who caused it, when so many others have tried and failed.”

Tony’s eyelids drooped, and I glanced back the way I’d come, deliberating the idea of rushing him to the medical office. If Kerrigan was still there, she might be able to revive his pulse and give me extra time to extract more information.

But then she’d see what I’d done. Who I truly was.

She stitched up injuries, and I inflicted them; she saved lives, and I took them.

She told me she loved me, and I knew she did, but a part of me still worried I’d go too far and scare her away. There was also a side of me that didn’t believe I deserved the amount of happiness being with Kerrigan brought me.

Or that I couldn’t fully sink into the comfort and joy without it getting yanked out from under me.

Fucking witches. They’d burn the entire world to the ground and still not have their fill of death and destruction. They couldn’t wait to take my second family away from me, and I’d be damned if I’d let that happen. If it necessitated leading my people to war against them to eradicate every last one from off the face of the earth, so be it.

“Besides,” Tony wheezed, his chin slumping against his chest as the light in his eyes dimmed, “if the coven’s busy with you, it’ll give my wife time to take the money I stashed and run. The witches weren’t the only ones with the failsafe.” His weak laugh evolved into a hacking cough that ended with a wheeze.

Magic licked at the underside of my palm, the air around us buzzing with it. The intruder’s neck wrenched to the side with an awful pop, and then he went limp.

Not only had the witches killed him with their premeditated spell, they’d left me with the dead body to dispose of. Angry heat pumped through me as I lowered him and the chair to the floor.

I withdrew the cell he’d had on him from my back pocket. I’d destroy it so no one would track it to the compound, but not before combing it for information that might give us an advantage or lead us to the coven.

I dialed the last number he’d called and paced the room.

“Hello?” After a couple of seconds, the female voice said, “Tony? Is that you?”

“Yeah,” I said, waiting and hoping the woman on the other side would spill information.

A shrill cackle filled my ear. “You think I didn’t feel my spell taking effect? Please tell me I’m talking to the illustrious Conall Shaw.”

That awful laugh dredged up memories of the day my family was executed. It might not be the same witch, but in a lot of ways, they were all the same. Ruthless, cruel, and in need of a lesson. “I’m going to rip you limb from fucking limb. You’ll pay for what you’ve done to my family and to other werewolf packs.”

“Now, now, now,” she said with a cluck of her tongue. “Are you sure you want to start with threats?”

“I’m sure I want to enact them. I’m counting down the moments till we meet on the battlefield.”

“Ah, here I was hoping we might come to an agreement. Guess I was right about you needing extra motivation. Just do me one tiny favor and hold onto my number. I have a feeling you’ll want to give me a call here pretty quick. Until then...”

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