Moon Broken Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: Ten Days Earlier

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Moon Broken

  The Wolf Wars Series: Book 2

  H. D. Gordon

  Copyright © 2017 H. D. Gordon

  Published by H. D. Gordon Books

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  For Moo, the baddest bitch I know…

  Besides myself, of course.

  ;)

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  The End

  About the Author

  Sneak Peek: The Halfling

  The Halfling

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: Ten Days Earlier

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  The Halfling Available Now

  Mailling List Sign Up

  Be Cool; Review

  1

  I had never seen anything like it.

  Hell, I’d never even imagined anything like it.

  If someone had asked me a week prior if the existence of such a place were even possible, I’d have laughed my head off at the absurdity of the suggestion. I’d have pegged them for a fool.

  But here I stood… and there it stood. My eyes probed it distrustfully, as though it might be a mirage, a nightmare shrouded in the guise of a dream.

  There was a soft chuckle behind me, and I turned on my heels to face the Mixbreed. His scarlet eyes glittered with the amusement I’d come to expect from him. The male seemed to take nothing seriously.

  “What the hell is that?” I asked with a wave of my hand.

  Adriel’s smile was as handsome as a devil’s. “That is Mina,” he said, his slight accent caressing the name. “And Mina, is home.”

  Home.

  The word seemed to clang through my head. I’d never had a home. I wasn’t even entirely sure I knew what a home was. I understood the concept, of course, but understanding something logically and knowing something through actual experience were entirely different things. Even slaves knew that.

  Former slave, a faint voice in my head reminded me. My hand came up and brushed the base of my neck, where a binding collar no longer hung.

  I squinted into the distance. “And what are those?” I asked, my voice coming out softer than I’d intended.

  “Those are mountains,” the Mixbreed replied, and now there was a touch of pity mingling with the humor in his tone.

  I ignored his unwanted sympathy. I’d never seen mountains so monstrously enormous in all my life.

  Then, again, I was beginning to suspect there were a whole multitude of things most slaves never got to see.

  I was suddenly afraid, and as was my default reaction to the emotion, I put up my defenses. Crossing my arms over my chest and ignoring the pain it caused in my battered body, I narrowed my gaze on Adriel. “If this is some kind of trap, you’ll regret it,” I warned.

  Adriel’s beautiful face was lined with weariness, and he actually rolled his red eyes at me. “Your many, many threats have been duly noted, my dear,” he sighed. He waved a pale hand. “Now, if you please…”

  With a huff that sounded more petulant than it felt, I spun back around and forged onward. I was still hurting from recent events, but I was a Wolf, and I was healing.

  Physically, anyway.

  Despite my pain and desire not to appear as awed as I certainly was, I couldn’t keep my eyes from wandering back to the town that the Mixbreed had so lovingly proclaimed to be Mina.

  The sky was a blue so deep and vibrant I was sure I’d never seen the shade before, and oranges, pinks, and purples mingled in the distance as the sun prepared to set on another day. White, wispy clouds kissed the tips of the massive mountains, which were covered in a white substance I could only assume was snow, because I’d never seen snow in real life before.

  Near the foot of these mountains, trees taller than any I’d encountered in the Midlands or Western Coast made up a sea of emerald green that rolled on endlessly in three of the four directions.

  From my vantage point atop what seemed to me the one-millionth hill the Mixbreed had forced me to climb since we’d fled the Western Coast, I had a view of three lakes nestled in various locations in the ocean of emerald trees. The setting sun had not quite escaped the sky, and its golden rays set the crystal-clear waters shimmering. I took a moment to fantasize about what it might feel like to slip into one of those lakes. I wondered if their magnificent waters were strong enough to wash away the stains that marred my insides, the blood that coated my hands.

  With my luck, there would be monsters living in the depths of those pools, and they would swallow me whole as soon as I dipped in a toe.

  This thought brought a very sharp, very specific memory back to me; the memory of a pale, white coat and large, terrified eyes, the sound of water churning and a crowd screaming in excitement... A sea serpent with snakelike eyes and scaly skin and a maw yawning wide to reveal a throat of beckoning darkness…

  Something touched my arm, and I jumped, my teeth clenching tight enough to make my sore jaw ache.

  Adriel pulled his hand away with such swiftness I barely saw him move. “We’re getting close,” he promised. “Then, we can eat and rest.”

  “I’m fine,” I gritted out, and stalked past him in the direction we’d been heading.

  When I glanced back, he rolled his scarlet eyes again, and the urge to smack them right out of his pretty head struck me, but before I could decide whether or not to act on it, he said, “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re welcome to try.”

  “Insufferable,” I muttered, pushing onward with renewed purpose and refusing to look back again.

  “Right back at ya, dearest,” the Mixbreed mumbled.

  We travelled the rest of the way in silence.

  If the sight of the place had awed me from afar, it absolutely astonished me as we drew close. Now, there was nothing I could do to keep the wonder from my face, and I didn’t even care to. Only six moon cycles ago, I’d thought that Marisol, the city by the sea and home of the former West Coast Pack Master, was surely the most stunning place to exist in all the worlds.

  Even before Adriel led me into the town of Mina, I coul
d tell that Marisol’s beauty paled in comparison to that of Adriel’s professed home, like the vibrancy of the full moon compared to that of a single, insignificant star.

  Standing in the shade of the towering evergreens we’d been traveling through for millennia, I nearly had to grip the trunk of the tree nearest me to steady myself.

  “Goldie’s here?” I asked, and didn’t care how amazed the words sounded.

  “Yes,” Adriel replied. “She’s been here since she left Dogshead.”

  I took a deep breath. Then another. I nodded. “Okay. Take me to her.”

  The Mixbreed lifted a dark brow at me, that vastly annoying humor appearing on his handsome face again despite the weariness lining his exquisite features.

  “Please,” I gritted out.

  A slow smile pulled up one side of his mouth. “Of course,” he said, and led the way out of the rolling emerald trees and into the streets of the town itself.

  Despite my overwhelming anticipation at seeing my old friend again, I soon found myself once again lost in the wonders that seemed to abound in Mina. It was not the modernity that made it a marvel, nor was it a quaint quality, but rather, a purposeful mixture of the two, as if the architects of the place had taken the best attributes of the old worlds and the new and combined them to create a category all its own.

  That’s what Mina was, I realized, as we wandered further into the town—a category all its own.

  With those monstrous, white-capped mountains providing a backdrop, the shadows of early evening had begun to creep in around the edges. The buildings were all different shapes and sizes, none tall enough to obscure views of the surrounding forest, with roofs poised at sharp angles and walls made of stones of varying proportions. Round windows offered glimpses at the occupants inside, many just sitting down for supper or an evening cup of tea. Golden light filled these circular frames, and my strong Wolf ears picked up the sounds of laughter and the clanking of glasses and silverware.

  “Is this where the Masters live?” I asked.

  The only time I’d ever heard such sounds was in the presence of the Masters.

  For once, there was no humor in his expression when Adriel looked over at me. “There are no Masters here, Rook,” he said, his tone gentle, but also firm. “There are no Dogs, no Hounds, no whips or cages.”

  “So you keep saying,” I mumbled, moving away from the Mixbreed to investigate the sound of running water nearby, though I had not seen any rivers.

  When I reached the source, my head tilted at the sight. Walls made of the same stone used to build the houses encased a perfectly symmetrical stream of water.

  I hadn’t even heard a shift of air to alert me to his movement when Adriel spoke beside me. “It’s called a canal,” he told me. “We built it so that we can bring supplies into Mina with greater ease.”

  I blinked, still staring at the water. “You made this?” I asked. “How does one make a river?”

  Adriel’s soft chuckle floated up on the evening breeze. “It’s not a river. It’s a canal. And we made it using magic, of course.”

  Snorting, I caught sight of a bridge spanning the water and found my feet moving toward it of their own accord. “No wonder you’re so arrogant,” I said over my shoulder. “I guess I would be too if I could just magic myself an entire river.”

  “It’s a c—,” he sighed and shook his head. “Never mind. I get that it’s a lot to take in, but you’ll have plenty of time to explore later.” He paused, as if he was trying to decide whether or not to say something. Then, he gave an almost imperceptible shake of the head, apparently deciding against it. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  In answer, my stomach grumbled audibly. I gave him a look like this was a stupid question, and to my surprise, he only angled his head and half-smiled. He extended his elbow to me. “This way, my lady,” he said.

  I was just about to tell him that I was no lady when a small, familiar voice called out to me.

  “Rook?”

  My head whipped toward the direction of the speaker… and my heart nearly melted in my chest.

  I blinked. Then, blinked again. My mouth fell open, and the voice that came out of it was the ghost of my normal tone. “Amara?” I whispered.

  A smile as bright as the sun on a summer morning spread over her pretty little face. Though I had only known the child for a handful of days, seeing those hazel eyes brought back the memories in a wave that almost had me swaying on my feet.

  She looked different than when I’d last seen her. Her cheeks were pink and full, her face clean and her body filled in beyond just muscle and bone. She looked stronger, healthier… happier.

  I felt my throat trying to close, and swallowed past it, shoving the emotions down deep. Instead, I opened my arms to the child, and Amara ran into them without hesitation.

  “You made it!” Amara squealed as I scooped her up into my grasp.

  Despite her obvious growth in the past half-year, she was still as light as a feather in my strong arms. I was sure not to wince despite the pain our embrace caused me. I could feel that a wound on my back had split open again, and blood was running down the curve of my spine… but the sensation was easy to ignore.

  For a handful of moments that felt like extended heartbeats, I could only hold the child close and breathe deeply to suppress the rush of feelings that seemed ready to overtake me at a moment’s notice as of late.

  By the time I set Amara back down on her feet, I had gained a reasonable amount of control over myself.

  “How are you?” I asked, studying her for any sign of hidden distress.

  But there was none. There was no veiled pain behind her smile, no tension in the soft curves of her shoulders. For lack of familiarity, it took me a moment to recognize that the child seemed completely… well adjusted.

  Her response confirmed my observations. “I’m great!” she said, hopping up on her toes a bit in her excitement. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

  Someone cleared their throat behind me, and I remembered that Adriel was standing there. I’d all but forgotten his presence in my shock at seeing Amara again.

  To add to my astonishment, the girl ran toward the Mixbreed and threw herself into his arms. He scooped her up in much the same manner as I had, spinning her around in a circle until she giggled with amusement.

  “You’re home, too!” Amara said, and something about the inflection in her tone had me studying the Mixbreed in a way I had not before.

  When Amara looked over at me with a wide, gapped-tooth grin, I saw that Adriel was watching me as well, and his expression was not one I’d seen him wear before.

  “I’m so glad you’re back,” Amara said, wrapping her arms around Adriel’s neck and nuzzling deeper into his grasp. In a voice low enough that I knew it was not meant for me to hear, the child whispered into Adriel’s ear, “Every time you leave, I’m afraid you won’t come back again.”

  Adriel smiled at her with none of the snarky undertone I was so used to seeing when he wore the expression. Even I had to admit that when he smiled like that, I could see his appeal. The male was esthetically stunning.

  Adriel placed his hands gently on either side of Amara’s head and met her hazel eyes, which were almost the exact same shade of my own. “I will always do my best to come back,” he promised, “but, if, one day, for whatever reason, I don’t…”

  Amara sighed, the exhale making her little chest rise and fall, and she finished the sentence for him. “I will be fine. I will be strong. I will continue fighting the good fight.”

  The moment was intimate, and I knew I should look away, but I couldn’t seem to do so. The smiles the two of them shared next were not only breathtaking, but somehow heartbreaking as well. When Adriel placed a gentle kiss on Amara’s forehead, bending from his towering position to do so, like a father might a daughter, I wondered at the wonder of it all.

  Then, another familiar voice spoke behind me.

  “Rook?”

  The ai
r froze in my lungs as I turned on my heels.

  And there was Goldie.

  2

  For a moment, I could only stand rooted to the spot, staring at the person on the other side of the bridge, taking in her familiar red hair and thin frame, her big blue eyes and unhinged jaw. She stared back at me, no doubt seeing a similar look on my face.

  The voice that came out of me was a choked version of my usual tone. “Goldie?” I asked, and the name was only a whisper.

  Then I was running. And she was running. We collided a handful of heartbeats later, holding each other in a hug that revealed the horrible truth I’d spent half a year avoiding.

  Neither one of us had ever expected to see the other again.

  But here we were, and our embrace said that we could hardly believe it.

  Though I felt them burning in my soul, tears did not reach my eyes. It was as though I’d run out of them.

  Goldie, on the other hand, blubbered and sputtered as she finally released me from her death grip to hold me at arm’s length. Her sharp blue eyes ran me up and down.

  “You look like shit,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks as she smiled.

  I looked down at myself. She was right, of course. I was still wearing the rags I’d been sent into The Ring with, and blood and dirt coated me like a second skin. Most of my wounds had healed thanks to my supernatural blood, but some of them would take days to fully recuperate.