Page 70 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

“I’ve never heard of that before,” I admit. “I have no idea what it means. Probably just that he wanted us to do something for him, to prove our loyalty in some way.”

“We’re not loyal to them,” she said. “Why would we be?”

“We were outnumbered,” I say. “Two wolves against three Moon Casters. And with the strength of the magic they were using…” I shiver. “Emlyn, they could have killed us if they had wanted to. We got away because they were toying with us, not because we were stronger or smarter than they were.”

“No,” she says. “You broke through their magic—”“I did,” I say. “And I don’t think they were expecting that from me. I think I did take them by surprise. But the fact that they didn’t kill us can only mean they didn’t want us dead.”

“They said they wanted us dead.”

“I mean they didn’t want us deadtoday.”

She takes a deep, shuddering breath.

“Do you think they’re going to hunt us down?” she asks. “They really didn’t like that we were hybrids.”

“No, they didn’t. I have no idea what they’ll do.”

“All the wolf packs already want us dead because we’re part Moon Caster,” she said. “Even Nate was going to turn us in. Now the Moon Casters are after us too?”

“Hybrids are rare,” I say. “It makes sense that everyone would be completely freaked out by the nature of what we are. Think about it. The wolves and the Moon Casters are at war with each other, and we’ve got all the powers of both of them. We can pass as belonging to either group, and then we can use the other group’s strengths to take them down from the inside.”

“The way my pack thought I would use magic against them,” she says.

“And the way my coven was afraid of me learning to shift while I was with them. Exactly.”

“Isn’t there anyone in the world we can trust besides each other?”

“At least we have each other,” I say. “You can’t imagine how lonely these last ten years have been, thinking I was the only person like me in the world.”

She looks up at the daylight shadow of the moon too.

“Sometimes,” she says, “I miss the days when the world was simple.”

“When was the world simple?”

She laughs wryly. “Well, simpler than it is now. I’m talking about the time before I knew what I was. The time when I thought it was enough to be a wolf, to serve my pack and to hunt Moon Casters and eventually try to have a child. That was all I was supposed to worry about in life. Now everything’s more complicated.”

“Yeah,” I say. “It does kind of feel like the threats are coming from all sides.”

“Do you think we should leave the city?”

“I’ve thought about it,” I admit. “But who’s to say things would be better anywhere else? At least here, we have some idea of what we’re up against. We know where the Ravagers have their hives. Imagine going to a new city and just not knowing where the Ravagers were at all!”

Emlyn nods. “That’s what I thought, too,” she said. “I just wanted someone else’s opinion.”

“I would go with you, you know,” I tell her. “If that’s the decision…what’s most important to me is that you and I stick together.”

“Always,” she tells me.

She gets to her feet, grabs my hand, and pulls me up to stand beside her, and catches me in a kiss.

Chapter Forty-six: EMLYN

IwantsexbecauseI remember how it made me feel when I was first missing Victor. It took the edge off the pain.

And I’ve noticed that—while I can still feel my bond with Victor—it’s diluted, just like it was when Nate was here. Milo seems to have the same effect on it. It’s like my mate bond with Victor is a current in a river, but Nate, and now Milo, are rocks in that same current that catch me and allow me to cling to their surface, to avoid being washed away.

So what I’m hoping now is that being with Milo might distract me from the pull I still feel toward Nate.

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