Dark Moon Rising (The Revenant Book 2) by Kali Argent Read Free Book Online

to kill us.” The fight drained out of her, and her shoulders rounded as she wrapped her arms around her midsection. “We’re going to die here, and knowing my name isn’t going to change that.”
    The one she’d called Cade nodded his agreement. “They were watching us back at the truck stop. I’d guess they already know our names, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew why we were there.” He turned to the other male in the group. “Zerrik?”
    “Unfortunately, I think you’re right.” The vampire’s pale blue eyes narrowed. “We should go.” He straightened the collar on his dress shirt and gestured toward the door. “There’s no point in provoking them at this point.”
    Thea didn’t move right away, her expression wary. “Fine, but I still don’t like it.”
    “No one said you had to.” Leading the way through the cabin, Zerrik stopped on the front porch and motioned the others ahead of him.
    From there, they walked in silence, following the wolves at the front of the group down a narrow, cement pathway past tin-roofed pavilions and weathered picnic tables. Trees loomed on either side of them, their dying leaves crackling in the breeze. Eventually, Zerrik mumbled something about speaking with Cade and increased his pace to catch up to the two humans, leaving Rhys alone with Thea once again.
    Thea shivered and rubbed at her bare arms, but she didn’t complain about the cold. “Are we still in St. Louis?”
    “Forest Park,” he answered with a nod. “More specifically, we’re just outside what used to be the St. Louis Zoo.”
    “You’re fucking kidding.” She shuddered, this time clearly not from the weather, and her eyes took on a faraway look. “Tell me there are no playgrounds.”
    “Uh, yeah, there are a couple, and one of those spray parks.” He made big motions with his hands, lifting his arms up and down like a symphony conductor as he tried to explain. “You know, where the water sprays up out of the concrete. The pack pups play there sometimes.” Dropping his arms back to his sides, he looked at her and scowled, his eyebrows drawing together. “Why do you ask?”
    “No reason.”
    “You have something against jungle gyms and swing sets?”
    “Something like that.”
    Her reaction confused him. “Aren’t playgrounds supposed to be fun?”
    “Yeah, well, you weren’t at the last one.”
    A tingle rippled down Thea’s spine as she thought back to that night, that awful, macabre scene in the playground of an abandoned elementary school. So many people dead. People she’d known, some she hadn’t, and others, like Gabriel, she’d been proud to call a friend. She tried to remind herself that the Ravagers were as much victims as everyone else, maybe more so, wolves driven mad by the virus that had wiped out most of humanity in the Purge. Then the memories would surface, all the pain and suffering caused at their hands, and she found it a lot harder to feel sorry for them.
    “Where are we going anyway?” She saw trees. Lots of goddamn trees, and very little else. “What was that cabin? Why is there a cabin at a zoo? This is insane. You know that, right?”
    Rhys’ laughter was quiet and hesitant, as if he didn’t quite remember how to use it. “Technically, the cabin isn’t in the zoo. This used to be a nature preserve, and I’m not sure if the cabin was there before the Purge or not.” He pointed ahead of them toward a paved road beyond the thinning forest. “That’s where we’re headed now. Past the parking lot and through the north entrance.”
    “This is insane,” she repeated, rubbing at the ache building in the tense muscles of her shoulders.
    Growing up, her summer vacations had been spent at amusement parks, camping trips, and the occasional tourist trap. For the most part, she’d had a normal, uneventful childhood, as much as a shifter could anyway. As an only child, her parents had doted on her, and they rarely told her no, but her father had drawn