Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(81)

Jaxon averted his gaze, as if he knew his master no longer trusted him. "I'll text you with our location after I get the room," he said sadly as he picked Lea up in his arms, like a small child, and then started for the door.

"Jaxon?" Phoenix said, and Jaxon turned back to look at him, but Phoenix was suddenly torn with the decision to reinstate him as second in command or leave it for later. If he couldn't trust him with news about how to save them all, then what could he trust him with? Lea, for one, but if something supernatural was taking over his body and mind, he couldn't risk all of them. "Never mind. Text me with your location. I'll have Roel relieve you tomorrow night."

After Jaxon left with Lea, Phoenix fell onto his bed, letting exhaustion and worry over what to do about Mena's wolf consume him.





Chapter 42



Roel





He'd been racking his brain for hours, but had come up with absolutely no solution about how to save them, and what was even more important, how to kill that damn high vampire without them all losing their lives.

Neither Brad nor Heath had been much help. Well, they'd actually been no help at all, if you vetoed their only suggestion of going back and begging the witches to change their minds. That wasn't going to happen, and neither was killing Mena to keep the wolf from taking over, not now since the vampire had tied them all to her. If Heather or Tracy found out their husbands were linked to not only a moonrising wolf, but also their Alpha's vampire lover… Roel shook his head at the thought. He couldn't even imagine what a catastrophe that might be.

Luckily, they had all managed to keep the news about the nexus spell from any of the pack, and even though telling them could be more dangerous to Mena, since there were possibly still more traitors amongst them, Roel felt he needed to tell them. They were a pack. They were family.


Startled by the sudden screeching of the cell phone on the pillow by his head, Roel jerked then immediately grabbed it and put it to his ear.

"What the hell went on up there, Phoenix? Did you think pissing off those bitches would help or have you lived so long that you're ready to die?" he barked into the phone.

"They are going to help us as much as they can," came Phoenix's reply, and Roel swiftly sat up.

"You went back up there? Alone? Are you insane? Need I remind you that all our lives are at stake here?"

"When you were unconscious, Mena and I were not. Meridia needed to make it appear that she was angry with me, and that she knocked all of us out so we could tell Mena about the moonrising wolf and what has to be done to stop the wolf from completely taking over by the next full moon."

"She knows how to get her name?"

"Yes."

Roel blinked then huffed when Phoenix didn't cheerfully elaborate on the good news. "Don't make me come over there and choke it out of you. I was nearly ready to do that before you called."

"How many packs are there in the United States?"

"Werewolf packs?" he said, confused by the question.

"No, bunny rabbit packs," Phoenix said, sarcastically. "Yes, werewolf packs, moron."

Roel ran a hand through his hair as he thought. "I'm not sure. A hundred, maybe more."

"Call a meeting with your pack and get me a list with phone numbers of every Alpha wolf you can…" He paused. "Then come see me."

"What's this about, Phoenix? Are you trying to start a war? And how am I supposed to call a meeting? I'm not the Alpha or Beta. Nobody is going to listen to me."

"Make them listen," Phoenix said, and then the call dropped.

Roel threw the phone on the mattress. "Damn vampire," he said as he scowled at the electronic device, and then he pointed at it, like Phoenix was still on the line. "This had better f*cking work or I'm going to beat your ass!"

He tossed the comforter off his legs then went to the bathroom to shower. Maybe the heat and steam would clear his head enough so he could think about how to get the pack to listen to orders given by a bloodsucker.





v''''v





The shower didn't help, damn it all to hell!

With only a towel wrapped around his hips, he stomped to the bed and snatched up his phone. He could call Heath and Brad. Together the three of them could come up with a plan. It might end in a vampire hunt, but that would still be a damn plan.

Then it hit him. Brad's wife was the pack's bookkeeper. She might have all the information they would need about the other alphas of the country.

"Yeah?" Heath said groggily over the other end of the call, and then he yawned.

"Get your ass up and get over here. I need the support of you and Brad to get the pack to listen to me."

"Are you for real, man?" Heath whined. "Tracy's been riding my ass for days about what I'm doing out all hours of the night. She's pissed that I can't tell her anything. Dude, she accused me of cheating on her—"

"Bring her with you, and call Brad, too. Tell him to bring Heather and all the information she has on the other packs in the United States. We're going to need everybody we can get."

A long silence filled the line, like Heath was trying to come up with another excuse why he couldn't come, and then he huffed. Roel could hear muffled voices, like Heath had covered the microphone and was talking to Tracy.