Page 19 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

There’s nothing wrong with being what I am. What I am is fine.

There are bad guys out there. But they’re something else entirely. And you’ll never see a sigil carved onmyface. I’ll never join the Moon Drinkers.

I will learn everything I can about them, and I’ll help Wilder and his coven put an end to them.

11

MILO

OnceEmlynandNatehave gone to their meeting with the High Sorcerer, I quickly realize I can’t stand to sit around the apartment and wait for them to come back. It’s too much. I find myself pacing, going to the window every couple of minutes to see if I can see them, worrying about what they’re talking to the High Sorcerer about.

I need to get out of this apartment.

And no one said I had to stay here. It’s not like I’m a prisoner, and Wilder told us this whole building was basically common areas. It should be fine for me to walk around and get the lay of the land. And if it’s not fine, it’ll be his fault for misleading me.

I leave the apartment and head up to one of the upper levels, choosing at random. I don’t want to go up to the very top. Emlyn told me what was up there, and I’m not ready to see the garden where they gather for spell work. Not yet.

The door I’ve chosen doesn’t open on anything particularly coven-ish. Instead, it looks like some kind of recreation room. A couple of men are tossing a ball back and forth—

No. Not tossing.

As I realize my miscalculation, a memory stirs in my mind.

People used to do this in my coven. I mean, in the coven where I grew up.

The men aren’t touching the ball. They’re passing it back and forth through the air between them, but they’re doing it without ever making physical contact. They’re using moon magic to send it back and forth.

One of them notices me watching. “You want to play?” he asks.

I’m surprised by how friendly and welcoming his tone is. “That’s okay,” I say. “I don’t really know how.”

“You’re the one Wilder brought back, right?” the guy says.

I nod.

“I’m Hax,” he says.

“Milo.”

“Good to meet you.”

It’s like he doesn't even care that I’m a hybrid.

Or maybe he doesn’t know. Maybe Wilder and the High Sorcerer aren’t spreading that part around just yet. It would make sense. I’d probably keep it quiet if I was in their position.

“Dad!” a little voice calls out.

The sound rocks me absolutely to my core, even before I turn around and see the little girl sprinting across the floor. She’s maybe four years old, with braids in her hair. One of them is coming undone. A smiling woman, looking a little bit tired, is following close behind her.

Hax bends down and scoops her up. “Maddie!”

I don’t quite know what to make of what I’m seeing. It’s been so long since I saw a child at all. “Is she…yours?”

The woman walks up to them. Hax puts his free arm around her. “She’s ours,” he says.

“Is that…” I swallow. This is a hard thing to ask. It might be a hard thing for them to answer. “Is that common here? Are you all able to…to have children?”

The smile fades from Hax’s face just a little. “No,” he says. “Melody and I were the lucky ones. No one else in our coven has been able to produce a child in the years since the Lunar Reversal.”

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