Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(122)

"From what I've seen of your past through your memories, I'd say a little sappiness will do you some good."

"I still plan to be an * to everyone else. You're the only one who gets special treatment."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

He chuckled. "Good, because I'd hate to disappoint you."

Phoenix stared ahead as he ended a call. "I see him. He's alone."

"He's not alone," I said. "I can feel the others."

"So can we," Meridia said. "He has given them all a little piece of his magic, so they will be harder to defeat, and, besides him, they are all in lycan form."

"Stay behind us, Meridia," I said. "We won't let any of them touch you or your sisters."

She snickered. "We'll be fine, my dear friend. Just worry about yourself. He is seeking a challenge with you. I would really hate for him to be Montgomery's next pack leader."

I palmed one of the daggers on my thigh and pulled it from its scabbard. "There's not going to be a next pack leader in Montgomery."

She grinned. "That's my girl."

Daryn smiled slyly when our eyes met, and I was just about to make a run for him when fifteen of my pack issued into the clearing of the field from the woods, their teeth bared and ready for a fight. I froze in place, simultaneously keeping my eyes on him and the wolves. From the growth of thick trees behind him, I could hear guttural cries and the roar of battle and knew that Phoenix's vampires had found the rest of my pack. I prayed none of them got hurt; his clan was just as important to me as my pack was.

"I just want you, Mena. Or should I call you Andromeda?" His gaze moved a few feet to my right. "It's nice to see you made it, detective. Glad to see you brought all your friends. I expected as much. Actually, that is what I intended for you to do. Once I am Alpha, the vampires will be mine, too."

Phoenix clenched his teeth together. "You have farfetched dreams, wolf cub. What makes you so sure any of this will become a reality?"

Daryn smirked. "I'm sure you've guessed how magically talented I am, but just in case you didn't catch all my hints, allow me to show you." He raised his hands, fingers splayed to the heavens, then brought them down with a force that rocked the Earth on its axis. Everyone, besides my pack, Ace and me were impelled into the ground, groaning and screaming in excruciating pain.


Daryn's brow furrowed in confusion. "I must have missed one. How careless of me."

Ace held onto my hand. "Oh, shit," he muttered. "This doesn't look good, Andra. Want me to shift?"

"No. It's clear he doesn't know I've bonded with you. You may need your voice before this is over. Remember that he is part of my pack, and that you are his Alpha, too. Stay here. If he kills me, make sure he suffers before you slaughter him."

"I'm waiting, sweet Andromeda," Daryn said.

"The bond is screaming at me not to let you do this, but the Alpha in me knows you have to do what you have to do to get the job done. With that being said, I'm going to agree with both options; I'm going to let you go, but he isn't going to touch you, because I'm going with you."

"Ace, if you want to be a hero, just make sure my pack make it out of this alive!" I said through our connection.

"Oh, they will, but you will, too. Don't argue with me about this, Andra. I may be bonded to you, but I am still an Alpha. Nobody threatens what is mine. Let's go," he said, and then started toward Daryn. I only hesitated a moment, stunned, before he pulled me along with him.

"Make him beg for mercy, Mena," Phoenix said in a strained voice from the ground beside me.

"Go, Mena," Meridia said. "I've cloaked you both, but my power is weak; it won't last long.

Daryn was still smiling, but there was a tiny fraction of nervousness in his eyes as they shifted to look at Ace. Behind that carefully trained mask, he was afraid; I could feel it.

I kicked myself for not seeing this before. He'd been the only one of my pack who had tried to contact me to let me know the pack was turning against me.

"What's this?" Daryn said when Ace and I stopped ten feet from him. "I thought the vampire was your flavor of the month. Or was it Rhodes? I can sense this one is a shifter. That's an improvement on your taste, but…" he sniffed the air, "…he isn't one of us."

"You're right and wrong," Ace said. "I am a shifter, the King of Beasts, per se, but I am also one of you."

Disbelief showed on Daryn's face. "It's not possible to be two different shifters."

"Who are you?" I demanded.

Daryn laughed. "That's the best part! I am the grandson of our creator. The story is wrong, you see. After my grandfather cursed one of my mother's lovers to the night and the other to the moon, my mother chose the beast as her one true love and ran away with him."

My eyes popped wide as I remembered Katie telling me that story. "You're over two-thousand years old? Why aren't you an Alpha already?"

"I've been waiting for the perfect time. You see, just being an Alpha wasn't quite good enough for me. I needed a moonrising Alpha to help me take over all other Alphas. My plan was working until someone figured out you hadn't named your wolf. It was I who caused Marc to attack you, and it was I who helped you pull that trigger, taking his life and title. I overheard Marc talking with his sister about leaving you; he said you were getting suspicious and he would rather you think he was cheating on you than tell you what he really was."