Page 24 of Moonlit Choosing Ritual

Lupin peeled his lips back and snarled. He was like a dangerous predator on the verge of losing it.

‘Lupin, she must have gone to the restaurant. Don’t do anything. Let me out.’ I had to coax him for a long time before he gave me back my skin.

After that, chaos ensued.

As I rushed back to my room, I opened my mind link and snarled at Kenzie, ‘Kimble is missing. Find her!’

Kenzie didn’t have the balls to argue with me because of the wrath I was feeling. It was palpable through our bond. ‘I’ll send our warriors to find her,’ he said and shut the connection.

Blistering, smoky rage burned through me. I paced my room like a caged mountain lion who wanted to break free and kill anyone in his way.

Aria came back around midnight with a pouty face. “Where did you go, Alpha Talon? You’ve never done that before.”

Calming my wolf, who was engulfed in a tempest of fury, was becoming so difficult that I ignored her. She winced when I inadvertently glared at her, my eyes blazing like infernos.

“Alpha Talon, why are you so angry?” she asked, face etched with fear and concern.

Through my clenched teeth, I said, “Kimble is missing!” My biceps bulged, rippling taut as steel cables, ready to unleash destruction. It was then that I realized my claws had slipped out.

“Missing, as in?” she asked with wide eyes.

“My wolves are looking for her, so I can’t say whether she’s run away or dead!”

Aria swallowed as she sat on the bed, her body taut with tension. “There’s something I’d like to say,” she said in a soft voice.

I snapped my head at her. “What?”

She pursed her lips and lowered her head. “Forgive me, Alpha Talon, but the other day, when she was folding your clothes, she said she wanted to run away rather than do such menial jobs.”

I froze, my mind going numb. She ran away because of me. Rage replaced guilt and then it came back with greater force. “So you think she’s run away?”

Aria took a deep breath. “I know that girl’s impulsive, but I don’t think she’d be foolish enough to run away. After all, the security of the Alpha compound is very tight. I feel that she’s been a thankless teenager. She should’ve realized that you paid three million dollars to save her from a hellhole. I’ve always tried to explain to her how nice you’ve been. If she has any brains at all, she’ll come back.”

In the hollow of my chest, a maelstrom of emotions churned, ranging from betrayal to desperation to an unrelenting need to get to her and get her back.

“You should forget about somebody as selfish as her, Alpha Talon,” Aria continued. “Three million dollars is nothing to you.” She stood and placed her hands on my chest. “Please calm down. Let me get you some coffee. It’ll help.” Snaking her arms to my neck, she lightly brushed it with her fingers. “It’s nothing, okay? Though I don’t think she’s run away or gone missing, you mustn’t spend your energy and emotions on her. Please, Alpha Talon. I don’t like seeing you so riled up. Why don’t you focus on our wedding instead?”

Our gazes locked and I felt… nothing. My rage was still the same, but my mind was messier. I stepped back from her, putting distance between us. I didn’t like what she said. Suddenly I spun and jumped from the balcony, landing on all fours on the ground below.

I tipped my head up and let out a piercing, deafening howl that reverberated through the moonlit silence. Kenzie and the others were still searching for her. I loped toward the forest, digging earth with my sharp claws, leaving deep scars in my wake. The forest around me shrank, quivering under the weight of my seething rage. It took Kimble escaping for me to realize her absence was like a gaping wound. And in my frenzied quest to find her, I became a whirlwind of vengeance.

For ten fucking days, we searched but still couldn’t find her.

Chapter 13

Kimble

“The werewolf community loathes humans,” Macy said as she wove flowers into my hair. “But you’re lucky that you’ve come to the right place.”

Ever since I arrived, I’d been sleeping in the room beside hers. Macy was Alpha Liam’s housekeeper.

Over the last ten days, Alpha Liam had been nothing but charming. He never touched me once, was very polite and did everything to make me happy. Small gestures like giving me a wild dandelion made my heart flutter. He would always ask if I had eaten or not, or needed more comfort.

Initially, when he told me I was in his pack and they were all werewolves, I was shocked. I was living with wolves.

My initial shock when a man shifted into a wolf from his anger at seeing me was mind-numbing. It happened on the second day when Alpha Liam’s Beta, Ty, had come to his house. The moment he saw me, his temper flared and he shifted into his wolf who wanted to attack and kill me. I couldn’t move from where I stood, waiting for my end. However, the moment he leaped at me, a growl burst from behind me.

“Ty, noooo!” The next instant, I saw Liam turn into a brown wolf and chase him to the garden in a frenzy of howls and nips and yelps and fangs.

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