Page 8 of Moonlit Bonds

I ignore it, struggling to focus on Seraphina’s rapidly moving mouth while she tries to speak to me.

“You’re all going to die. I know it sounds awful, and random. Please listen.” In her hand, she’s carrying her amethyst necklace from last night. “Please take this.”

She places it in my open palm, moving my fingers with hers to cover the stone.

I know what it’s for, protection. She’s quite serious.My gaze drops to hers and we hold eye contact for one beat, two, her hand clammy against my overheated skin.

“Please,” she repeats. “You have to listen to me. There is something awful coming and the vision I had, I saw you, I saw your pack—” She’s out of breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Okay, calm down. Let’s go talk away from everyone.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders to bring her against my side.

She nods, her eyes alert, the magic between us practically a rope pulling me into her orbit.She doesn’t resist my touch and yet the moment our skin connects, my entire body reacts.

My skin, my veins, my heart. My wolf pushes for release and roars at me to claim her the way I’m meant to claim my mate.

I have to get a grip.

“Follow me.” I lead Seraphina outside to the picnic area and take a seat at one of the tables with its paint peeling off like a bad sunburn.

“Kieran, you have to listen,” Seraphina interrupts, unable to still long enough to take a seat. She glances down at my hand like she’s making sure I have the amethyst pendant.

“It’s okay, I promise,” I assure her. “I face threats all the time. You didn’t see anything new. You said this was a vision?”

She nods again, biting down on her lower lip and looking so fucking vulnerable I want to keep her close. “Please put it on. Thiswillcome to pass. It wasn’t in the past, and it wasn’t just some dream. I wouldn’t come all this way and step foot onto pack lands just because of a dream. My visions, like that, are warnings. It’s a warning of what is to come.”

“So what are my odds, you think? One to ten? One to five? Do you have some sort of—” I lower my voice, “witchy guarantee.”

She flinches. “This isn’t something you can take lightly.”

I sigh, knowing my attempt at levity has failed. “Listen—” I start to say.

Behind us, a female is closing in. I smell her. I shove the necklace into my jeans pocket and turn in time to see Gloria approach.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Gloria says, placing down two large plastic cups filled with ice water. “I didn’t get you to sign off on the Fill the Pantry event, Alpha.” She glances over at Seraphina. “Oh, you are new here. Haven’t seen your face before.”

Seraphina stares at me and then at Gloria like a deer in headlights.

“Now Gloria, that is not a way to pry into my business or be rude to my guests. We’ll talk about the event another time when I am not otherwise wonderfully preoccupied.” It seems like the most diplomatic thing to say in this case and I’m floundering. Utterly at a loss for the right thing to say or do or be.

Gloria turns her attention to Seraphina again. “I really am so sorry. I was just ….” she trails off. She sniffs the air. I freeze. “Whoareyou?”

“No worries. I was just leaving, I guess. I’ve already said my piece.” Seraphina tucks her chin and glances away as if something over by the trashcans is infinitely more interesting.Her dark hair hides her face from view.

“No, you weren’t.” I glance back to Gloria. “Gloria, could you leave us alone? We have business to discuss.”

At that, neither Gloria nor Seraphina seems happy with me.I’m not handling this well.

Gloria finally turns on her toes and swishes her hips back through the door to the diner and out of view. The moment we’re alone, Seraphina swivels around to face me again. She isnothappy. Her hair stands on end, her cheeks pale but her eyes overly bright.

This time, my wolf reads her and whimpers. I can practically taste her magic. And it tastes like fear.

4

SERAPHINA

“It was a mistake to come here.” A seriously huge mistake. If that woman, Gloria, figures out what I am, then the rest of the wolves inside the diner will have something else to feast on.

Me.

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