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

the line when it came to animals in cages. So, she’d never been to a zoo, a circus, an aquarium, or even a pet store.
    Older now, she understood why her father had banned such places, but as a child, she’d viewed his decision as the height of unfairness.
    Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t immediately notice that Rhys had fallen silent, his head down and his hands tucked into the pockets of his tattered khaki cargo shorts. Belatedly, it dawned on her that he’d probably been through this same routine with other groups, traversed the same narrow walkway dozens of times in the dark. Over and over, he’d had to answer the same questions, listened to the same pleas, all the while knowing he could do nothing to save any of them. 
    Slowing, she touched his forearm, just below the elbow. “How long have you been here, Rhys?”
    “A while,” he said, echoing his earlier response.
    Maybe because of the mating bond growing between them, or maybe just because he sounded so damn broken, but her heart hurt for him. Sliding her hand down his arm, she urged his hand from his pocket and linked their fingers together, squeezing in comfort.
    “Okay,” she whispered, knowing avoidance when she heard it. “I’m always willing to listen if you change your mind and want to talk about it.”
    She didn’t push, falling quiet as they exited the tree line and stepped off a cracked curb into a mostly deserted parking lot. Once, she tried to pull away to give him space, but he gripped her hand tightly, like a drowning man clinging to his only lifeline. Thea didn’t resist.
    His palm was warm against hers, chasing away some of the chill from the night, and the simple touch gave her courage. When she’d set out from Pittsburgh, she hadn’t been searching for her mate, hadn’t even wanted one, and she damn sure hadn’t expected to find her missing half in a werewolf. Fate couldn’t have picked a more inopportune time or place to throw her and Rhys into each other’s paths, but she saw no point in fighting it.
    Once, just after her grandmother had passed, her mother had told her that fate didn’t make mistakes, and that everything happened for a reason, even if those reasons weren’t always clear. Thea had been seventeen at the time, and to her, it had sounded like a pretty bedtime story, a pacification parents told their children to help them accept that bad things happened in life. As she matured, however, she’d begun to think that maybe her mother had been right all along.
    Thea had seen things she couldn’t explain, walked different paths that always seemed to lead her back to the same destination. She’d watched fate throw together couples who made no sense together, then awed at the depth of their love and devotion. Her parents had been the prime example of such a pairing.
    They’d both been puma shifters, but beyond that, they’d had very little in common. Her mother had never once raised her voice in anger. She’d been beautiful, kind, giving, and she’d enjoyed baking. Before the Purge, she’d owned a small sweets shop outside of Philadelphia, but it had been common knowledge that Raina Mendez had given away more pastries and chocolates than she’d actually sold.
    Thea’s father, on the other hand, had been a stockbroker. Handsome but intimidating, with a million-watt smile that made women weak in the knees. He’d hated social gatherings, and he’d been near-obsessive about order and control. The only thing he’d ever been able to cook without burning it was a microwaved dinner.
    And no one had ever loved anyone more than Luis Mendez loved his wife.
    Rhys tightened his grip on her hand, bringing her back to the present as they approached the entrance of the zoo. Several SUVs and pickups had been parked in a neat row near the curb, and she gritted her teeth when she recognized the dark blue vehicle that had brought her to St. Louis in the first place. A few other sedans littered the parking lot, probably left