Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(99)

He leaned back, removing his hand from mine. I shoved the gear shift in first and pulled through the gate.

"Are you seeing him, too?" he whispered.

"Alex, please, just wait—"

"Answer the f*cking question," he said, slowly giving emphasis to each syllable.

I swallowed as I killed the engine. "I am seeing Phoenix. She is seeing you. When she's in control, I'm stuck in my head, watching everything through my eyes but unable to speak or do anything. It's the same for her when I'm in control. We negotiated the two of you."

"Phoenix and me?" he said, but he wouldn't look at me. The muscles in his jaw flexed a few times as he clenched his teeth.

The driver's door was pulled open, and Phoenix stood beside me, but he was staring a hole through the side of Alex's head as if he had said something offensive toward me.

"How much did you tell him?" Phoenix said.

Alex threw open his door and got out, slamming it as he rounded the front of the vehicle.

"How long have you been f*cking her?" He didn't stop once he reached Phoenix. Alex pulled his arm back and punched Phoenix in the jaw, then again in the stomach, but Phoenix barely moved. One of my hands came up to place over my aching jaw as the other one clutched at my stomach. My wrist and knuckles were throbbing, too, but that right hook had been a doozy. I couldn't let Alex hit him anymore. Not that Phoenix couldn't take the beating, but because I couldn't. This girl wasn't made for hand to hand combat.

"Shit! Alex, stop!" I scrambled out of the Jeep, but there wasn't going to be a fight; Phoenix just stood there, watching Alex cradle a sprained wrist.

Phoenix wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at it as Alex gawked at him in disbelief. "Only since yesterday, but she's been mine since the full moon. So, if you're pissed because you think I stole your girl, I could argue that it's the other way around."

Breathing hard, Alex looked down at the ground, like he was sifting through the memories in his head. "Since the full moon?" He raised his head to look Phoenix in the eyes. "That was the night of Marc's death." Realization flashed in his eyes, and the air whooshed out of his lungs as if someone punched him in the gut. "You killed Marc… didn't you?"

"Why don't we go inside?" Phoenix said, but it was more of a demand than a suggestion.

"Phoenix—" I started.

"I'm not going in that house. You're under arrest for murder!"

"Alex, he didn't—"

Alex pulled the gun from the small of his back and pointed it at Phoenix's chest. Phoenix slowly raised his hands in the air. "Get on the ground!"

Phoenix grinned. "Yeah, that's not going to happen—"

"What the hell's going on out here?" Roel said, and my eyes darted over to see that Brad, Heath, Lea and two other women were with him. "Rhodes, put the gun down, man. You really don't want to do this."

"Were you all in on it?" Alex shouted, never taking his aim off Phoenix's heart. I knew it wouldn't kill Phoenix if he shot him, but he didn't know that. "Is that what the big secret is?"

"Alex… listen to me, please," I pleaded.

After taking a few calming breaths, he said, "I'm listening, Mena, but I doubt I'll believe you."

That stung a little. "Phoenix didn't kill Marc—"

"Mena—" Brad said.

"Don't!" Roel shouted at me, but I ignored all of them.

"I killed him," I said.

The muzzle of the gun dropped a few inches when Alex's head jerked in my direction. He shook his head. "No."


I knew moving toward him could set him off—he already looked as if he felt threatened—so I dropped to my knees on the pavement of Phoenix's circle drive and laced my fingers together behind my head. "If you arrest anyone here tonight for murder, it's going to be me, but I would like to tell you what happened, if you'll give me the chance."

"Just so you know, cop, you ain't leavin' here with my Alpha," Heath said as he aimed one of Phoenix's fancy guns at Alex's head. "You have sixteen bullets in that Glock 19, and not one of them will hurt any of us here, includin' you." He smiled. "But this one will."

Alex's gun came back up to point at Phoenix's heart again. "What are you talking about? You people are all crazy!"

"You're not human anymore, Detective," Brad said.

"Way to let the wolf out of the bag," Roel said. "Don't hold back any. Tell it to him straight."

"What?" Alex's eyebrows popped up. "That's it. You're all going to jail. The judge can decide what to do with you tomorrow." He reached for his cell phone, and Heath pulled the hammer back on the gun he was holding.

"Don't shoot him, Heath," I said, and he growled at me, knowing he couldn't pull the trigger now, since I had given him a direct order.

And that's when it hit me. Even though the shifters who had receded from my pack were rogue, I was still their Alpha, and since one of them bit Alex, that made me his Alpha, too. Any command of mine had to be followed.

"Put the gun down, Alex!" I shouted, and his arm instantly dropped, like it was full of lead. His gun sprung from his fingers and clattered to the concrete.