Moon of the Terrible (Seasons of the Moon) by SM Reine Read Free Book Online Page A

that neither of them were close enough to Rylie to keep Cain from grabbing her.
    His hand clamped tightly on her arm, and he jerked her into his grip. She felt the silver pinch of claws on her throat and gasped.
    “You killed my mother,” he hissed into her ear, tightening his hand as he took a deep sniff of the side of her face.
    The claws bit into her jugular, and Rylie knew that there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t change in time. Abel and Seth were running, but they wouldn’t be fast enough.
    She was about to have her throat ripped out.
    But Cain froze as blood trickled down her neck. “Wait,” he said, taking another smell of her. He turned his burning gaze on his brothers. “Wait!”
    They froze.
    “What are you doing?” Eleanor asked.
    Cain released Rylie’s throat and shoved her. She stumbled over the ground and spilled onto her side. Abel stepped over her, hiding her behind their protective wall of bodies.
    But Eleanor and Cain didn’t try to attack.
    “What happens right here, right now—it doesn’t really matter,” Cain said, hooking his arm around his mother’s shoulders. “I have men in the Union. As soon as I left, they will have seized the sanctuary. They’ve killed the impure so we can start over.”
    “The impure?” Seth asked. He was still pale and wavering on his feet.
    “Those who were bitten instead of born. It’s time for a change.” Cain’s eyes glowed silver. “And that change begins with you, Rylie. Congratulations.”
    With that confusing proclamation, he hugged Eleanor tight and ran from the woods.
    He vanished in an instant.

N INE
    Talking in Code
    Trevin and Crystal were still waiting by the van when Rylie reached the top of the hill. Abel lagged a few feet behind, carrying Seth.
    As soon as he set his brother down, he rounded on Trevin.
    “Show me your arms and chest,” Abel ordered Trevin, eyes burning with fury. “Take off your shirt!”
    “Whoa there,” Trevin said, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace. “Did we miss something?”
    “Vanthe is Cain,” Rylie said.
    Both of the werewolves looked genuinely shocked. And they smelled genuine, too—although Rylie didn’t think that meant anything. She hadn’t smelled Cain’s lies either.
    Trevin took off his sweater and showed them his skin. He didn’t even blink when Abel checked his legs, too. There was no tattoo of a bleeding apple in sight.
    Crystal was barely dressed, so she had nowhere to hide a tattoo. Rylie checked anyway.
    They were both clean.
    “We have to get back to California,” Rylie said.
    They called the Whyte sanctuary at the first gas station they reached, but nobody answered. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Trevin said when they set out again. Seth was unconscious again from the pain of his hand, so Trevin was driving as quickly as he could to the nearest hospital. “Maybe they’re just busy.”
    “Fifty werewolves, a coven of witches, and the Union are all too busy to pick up a phone?” Rylie asked.
    Even Crystal didn’t laugh at that.
    Seth was showing signs of shock, so the doctors checked him into the hospital for a few hours of observation. Rylie borrowed a phone and called the sanctuary again—still no response.
    Which left Rylie nothing to do but talk to Abel.
    She found him standing outside in the snow with that girl werewolf, Crystal. Rylie hung back under the hospital awning to watch them talk.
    Crystal was leaning toward Abel and giggling, like he was saying the funniest things ever. She poured flirty pheromones into the air. But even without Rylie’s sense of smell, she would have been able to tell that Crystal wanted him—and bad .
    Rylie swallowed back a growl as her inner wolf surged.
    Don’t get jealous , she told herself.
    Easier said than done.
    Crystal pressed herself against Abel’s side, and before Rylie could think about what she was doing, she strode across the parking lot.
    “Hi,” she said, interrupting them.
    Crystal hugged