Moon Broken Page 2

  Some would take much longer.

  Looking up, I managed to muster a crooked grin.

  “I missed you, too,” I replied.

  “Oh, what the hell,” she said, swiping the tears off her cheeks before planting a kiss on my cheek. And then another. And another. I stood captive as Goldie kissed me all over my face, brushing my lips, my forehead, the tip of my nose and chin. Her feminine, familiar scent surrounded me, and that word came back to me again.

  Home.

  If home had a scent, Goldie was the one that it smelled like.

  “It’s like two dogs licking each other’s faces,” whispered a voice I also recognized.

  I turned to see Yarik, the Halfbreed I’d sent Amara away with all those moon cycles ago. Goldie continued to stare at me as though she thought I might disappear, but to Yarik, she said, “Don’t be insensitive, you oaf. And you don’t complain when I do it to you.”

  I glanced between Yarik, with his easy smile and intimidating stature, and Goldie, with her soft shoulders and wicked grin, and blinked at the connection I sensed in the air.

  Anger welled up in me like a pot set to boil. My head whipped toward the Mixbreed. “I thought you said there were no slaves here, but you’re forcing her to sleep with your friends?” I took a threatening step toward him, but Adriel only quirked an eyebrow.

  “Whoa,” Goldie said, straight into my mind in the telepathic manner we shared. “No one is forcing me to do anything, love. Yarik and I are in a relationship… an exclusive relationship. I… I really like him.”

  It took a few seconds for me to absorb this idea, and then I felt like an asshole. The only relationships I’d ever witnessed Goldie having were those with her customers, so maybe I couldn’t be entirely blamed for jumping to this conclusion, but that didn’t stop my cheeks from heating up with embarrassment.

  It took more effort than I would admit, but I met Adriel’s scarlet gaze. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just… assumed…”

  “It’s fine,” he replied, cutting me off. “It’s a lot to get used to. I have business to attend to, so make yourself at home.”

  With this dismissal, he nodded to Yarik, and the two of them disappeared into thin air.

  “I don’t think he likes me,” I mumbled, sinking into the warm water while Goldie sat on the other side.

  The pool was big enough to fit thirty people, but we were the only two here for the late hour. We’d had some dinner with Amara before coming, and then the child had run off with a promise to see us in the morning, because she and the other pups had things to do. I’d found this more adorable than I could even express.

  Goldie huffed out a bit of air. Her eyes were shut and her red-gold hair was piled in ringlets atop her head. She opened one eye to shoot a look at me. “It kinda seemed like you’re the one who doesn’t like him,” she replied.

  This took me aback a bit. “Am I supposed to?” I asked. “He bought you from Bo Benedict like one might an apple at a market.”

  Goldie snorted. She shut her eyes again and sank a little deeper into the warm water. “And then he freed me. He saved me from that bastard Hound, Mehki, remember?”

  “Well, he lied about it,” I countered. “I’ve spent the last six moon cycles in agony wondering about you. He could have told me that you were okay.”

  “Maybe he was trying to protect this place. All the people here.”

  I nodded. “Yes, all the people here. Who worship him like a cult master.”

  Goldie opened both eyes now, and she sat up, pinning me with her blue gaze. “Why not a Pack Master?”

  “Pack Masters are bastards,” I said. “Selfish, murderous bastards. And, besides, Adriel’s not a Wolf.”

  “He has some Wolf blood… but what does that matter? He’s good to these people, and that’s why they love him.”

  “He stole the Silver Book from me. I was tortured for days for it,” I recalled. “He lied to me then, too… I wonder if… if maybe he hasn’t got all of you fooled.”

  Goldie’s blue eyes blazed like one of the Apollo-blessed torches that lined the streets of Marisol. “What happened?” she asked, her voice deathly smooth in her sudden fury.

  So I told her. I told her about Ryker, about the relationship that we’d had, and about how the Hound had betrayed me. I told her about Marisol, the city with the sandy beaches and daunting cliffs, the air that smelled of sunshine and seaside. I told her about the friends I’d made there, about Kalene and Oren and Ares.

  I told her about the party at Reagan Ramsey’s house, where I’d stolen the Silver Book that supposedly held the secret to freeing the Dogs of the magical collars around their necks. I told her about the torture that had followed, about how Ryker had come to the cave to retrieve me, and the cold dungeon where they’d cut into me, suffocated me, burned me, and beat me.

  Finally, I told her about The Games. About the sea monster and the final match between Kalene and I, about the Wolfsbane Kalene had been given so that she would go rabid, about how I’d freed the Firedrake and it had gobbled up the West Coast Pack Master, Reagan Ramsey, like a feast on the Harvest Moon. And about how I’d ridden the Firedrake to that cliff and awaited the arrival of the Hounds, who I’d been sure were going to kill me for my treachery.

  Goldie sat silently through it all, watching me with those sharp, blue eyes and hardly moving an inch as she listened. Despite the depravity of what I was recalling, there was no pity in my friend as she looked at me. I was more grateful for this than she would ever be aware of.

  “Adriel got to you before the Hounds?” she asked, after I’d tapered off into silence, staring into the water as though the secrets of the realms glistened there.

  “Yes, he did.”

  “But not before the torture,” she added, and nodded her silent understanding of my reasons for not trusting the Mixbreed.

  “No,” I agreed. “Not before the torture.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  Silence fell between us for a moment. Then, Goldie said, “But was it his? If he hadn’t taken the book from you, would Ramsey not have found it in the cave, anyway? Or tortured its location out of you? Is Adriel the one you’re really mad at?”

  I considered. Goldie’s logic was both sturdy and annoying. “Maybe not,” I admitted. “Maybe it’s just the whole world.”

  Goldie shook her head, making her red-gold curls gleam in the dim light. “Not the whole world, love,” she told me silently.

  “You sure?”

  Her answering smile was like balm to a long-aching wound. “Pretty sure,” she replied.

  It sounded like a promise.

  But I wasn’t at all sure it could be kept.

  I could have stayed in the bath all night. Goldie explained that the waters were from a natural hot spring, so they never lost their warmth. Apparently, there were over a dozen hot springs in the areas surrounding Mina, the three largest of which I’d spotted on the trek in. Goldie had taken me to a smaller pool, but it was no less magnificent for its stature.

  The water was a vibrant turquoise that revealed the rounded stones in its depths, and steam rolled off the spring’s surface like the clouds that kissed the tops of those enormous mountains forever observing from the background.

  The lush emerald trees towering around the pool offered a sense of privacy that was only interrupted by the creatures skittering through the underbrush and swinging through the canopies. Above and beyond, an ebony night sky was flecked with stars, and the shadow of the Between Realms’ duel crescent moons grinned down upon us like the lips of a smiling deity.

  The sun would be rising in a handful of hours, and I needed sleep for if I ever decided I wanted to face the world again.

  Of course, as she had always been able to do, Goldie anticipated my needs instantly. She led me out of the forest, down a little trail that had been carved through the trees, and back into Mina.

  The town was beginning to settle down
for the night, though I did see some people wandering from here to there. Though the night cast many of their faces into shadows, I watched them with great curiosity, trying to pinpoint the oddity that kept catching my eye.

  When I finally did, I could only shake my head in amazement.

  The peculiarity that I kept seeing in the people of Mina’s gaits, conversations, and body language, was that they carried no sense of hurry, showed no signs of stress.

  They moved like… free people, I realized.

  And for some illogical reason, a part of me hated them for it. I shoved this part away, because I understood that it was ugly, that it could turn a good Wolf into a bitter, dangerous creature.

  By the time Goldie and I reached the building where I would apparently be given a room, I was close to collapsing on my feet. Because of this exhaustion, I took little notice of my surroundings as my friend led me into the stone building, up a set of stairs and down a hall, and into a room where a bed was the final detail I would recall.

  I promptly fell into it and was claimed by darkness.

  3

  Ryker visited me that night in my dreams.

  I was standing on the beach in Marisol, under a starry night sky, listening to the waves crash on the shore and breathing in the salty air. He came walking down the beach toward me, his footsteps silent in the sand.

  He looked exactly as I remembered him. Blue eyes and strong jaw, golden skin and sculpted muscles, the stern, smug expression he wore that slipped into an easy smile when we were alone.

  At first, I could only stare, rooted to the spot in which I stood. Somehow, I remembered how to draw air, and I pulled my gaze away from him with massive effort.

  “I should kill you where you stand,” I told him.

  Ryker nodded, rubbing at the stubble dusting his jaw. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  My eyes burned. I shook my head, afraid that if I spoke, my voice would betray me. I fixed my gaze on the dark, churning ocean.

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

  “Please,” I managed, “just leave me alone. Can I not have some peace even in my own dreams?”

  “There was no other way to reach you. I don’t know where you are.” He tried to reach out a hand and touch me, but I jerked out of range, shooting him a warning look.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. “What the hell is this?”

  “It’s called dream riding,” Ryker said. “I paid a Sorcerer to help me. I needed to see you.”

  I stared out at the ocean, trying to make sense of it all. I couldn’t bear to look over at him. I hated the way my body wanted to lean into his, despite his treachery, the way my heart seemed to call out for him, despite his treatment of it.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  I flashed my teeth as my jaw clenched. “Why? So you can come and drag me back to slavery? So you can have me tortured? Make me fight in The Ring?”

  Now my anger rose enough that I did turn to face him, and I could have as easily kicked him in the nuts as leaned into his touch.

  “Fuck you, Hound,” I said, spitting the words out like venom. “Fuck you and every other Hound in all the realms. Fuck you and your self-righteous ways. Fuck you and your lies. I hate you.”

  Ryker took a step toward me. The full moon above created a shadow in front of him that dwarfed me with his greater size. I tried not to remember how it had felt to climb up that long, lean body and have my way, but the heat spiraled in my stomach, nonetheless.

  “But I don’t hate you,” Ryker whispered, stepping even closer and raising his hands slowly to pull me toward him when I didn’t move away. “I love you,” he said. “And I’m so sorry for every wrong that has ever been done to you. I want to make it right. All of it.”

  The smell of him, sunshine and seaside, filled my nose, and my tongue darted out and wet my lips against my own wishes. Staring down at me from his taller height, Ryker took my waist in a vice grip and pulled me against his body. I could feel every hard inch of him pressed against me, could hear the rapid pacing of his heart.

  I love you, he’d said, and I hated that I wanted to believe it.

  I shoved him away before my body could betray me further. “There is no making this right,” I said. “What’s done is done.”

  To my utter surprise, Ryker dropped to his knees before me, clutching at my waist again with desperate hands. His blue eyes glowed like sapphires in the moonlight, his handsome face pleading as he held my gaze.

  “Tell me what to do to gain your trust again, Rukiya,” he said. “Tell me how to win you back.”

  I looked down at him without pity, admittedly enjoying the sight of him on his knees before me, but it was small consolation for the damage he’d done to my heart.

  “You’re a liar,” I said. “This is a trap. I won’t tell you where I am, so leave my head and let me sleep.”

  Ryker shook his head emphatically enough that part of me wanted to believe he was sincere. “Tell me what I can do,” he insisted.

  “Ramsey’s dead,” I said.

  Ryker nodded. “He was a bastard, anyway. He had my sister. She’s free now. Because of you. I always hated him.”

  I nodded. “You were his right hand.”

  “I didn’t really have a choice, Rook. You, of all people, should understand that.”

  “Oh, I understand,” I sneered. “I also understand that with him gone, you’re the obvious choice for a new Alpha. I bet you’re already lined up for the Master fights to prove your dominance.”

  Ryker was silent, looking up at me from where he kneeled. His silence was confirmation enough.

  “You want to make things right?” I asked. “Then win the Master tournament and free all the Dogs on the Western Coast. Free every Dog that Reagan Ramsey owned, every Dog that you will then own.”

  After a heartbeat or two, wherein the sound of the roiling ocean at our sides was the only utterance other than the aching of my heart, Ryker said, “The other Pack Masters, they would never stand for it. They would kill me if I did such a thing. You have to understand, Rook. There are systems, institutions, big money at play. Freeing the Dogs on the Western Coast would be an act of war. It would be suicide.”

  I snorted, rolling my eyes and turning away from him. He scrambled to his feet to follow after me as I stalked off down the shore.

  “But I love you and I want to be with you,” Ryker insisted. “I can keep you safe. If I’m the West Coast Pack Master, I can give you a good life. I can give us a good life.” He stopped and grabbed my arm, making me halt in my tracks. “Come back to me, Rook. You wouldn’t be a slave. You would be my Mate, and I would kill any Wolf who challenged that.”

  I threw my hands up, anger flooding me anew. “Is that supposed to convince me? Should I be so grateful that you’re willing to fight for me now, when you left me to die when I needed you the most? You expect me to come and be your Mate and live a life of luxury while others pay for that luxury in blood? If so, you’re as dumb as you are handsome.”

  Ryker kept stride beside me as I marched on. “You still think I’m handsome?” he asked quietly, and though I knew it was meant to be a joke, to lighten the mood, it only made me want to nut-punch him again.

  He held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I know I hurt you and I’m so sorry, but Ramsey had my sister. There was nothing I could do.”

  “Well, soon you’ll be Pack Master, and you can hold someone’s sibling hostage to get them to bend to your will,” I said. “So it seems to me like all your problems are solved. Lucky you.”

  This struck a nerve with him, and I saw his anger flare, reminding me of the Ryker I knew so well, the Hound that could flip a switch and delve into cruelty when it suited him.

  “Not all my problems, not by a long shot,” he replied through clenched teeth. “For instance, the fact that the Mixbreed has now captured you the same way he’s been stealing all the others is still quite a big problem. But if you would just tell me where you are, I could come resc
ue you...”

  I burst into laughter at this. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ryker’s face was deadly serious. “He’s a monster, Rook. Believe me. You can’t trust him.”

  Again, I laughed. “That is rich coming from you.”

  Ryker gripped my hands, capturing them and pulling me close again before I could turn away. “I love you, Rook,” he said again, his sapphire gaze clinging to mine. “I will prove it to you. But in the mean time, please be careful. I know you don’t trust me yet, but you definitely cannot trust the Mixbreed. You don’t know half of the things his kind is capable of, and if he hurts you, I will hunt him down myself and murder him for it.”

  My heart was clenching, my throat tightening, but I said, “You sound like a Gods damned psychopath.”

  Ryker stole a kiss, his soft lips brushing mine and causing my back to arch into him. The grin that came to his handsome face reminded me of all the time we’d spent together in that cave, exploring each other’s bodies. He was well aware of the effect he had on me, and the effect I had on him was currently pushing against my midsection as he held me close against him.

  “I have to go,” he whispered, “but I will reach out to you again. Please, think about what I said. Remember that I love you, and that Adriel cannot be trusted.”

  With that, the scene faded, Ryker and the warmth of his hard body disappearing as well.

  I returned to a normal sleep pattern only to find myself in a nightmare that was no less disturbing.

  The screech of the Firedrake cut across my ears, making my jaw clench and my eyes water.

  Kalene’s mouth was foaming, her eyes absent all rhyme and reason.

  A Wolf with a sinister grin and a rolling, metal cart appeared. Atop this cart were tools chosen for torture, instruments built to slice and maim.

  The Firedrake landed atop a cliff, and in the distance, I could see the chaos billowing out of Reagan Ramsey’s great arena—a structure that had taken thousands of slaves many moons to construct.