Moon Crossed (Werewolf Hunter Series): Season 1 (Episodes 1-6) (Crescent Hunter) (27 page)

Locke notices me in the
doorway. He's still wearing his work uniform, but he's got a beer in
his hand so he's content. “Hey, Claire.” He comes over
and gives me a hug.

“Hey, darlin'.”
I hug him back and inhale, smelling a girl on him. “How was
work?”

His expression turns
dramatically angry. “Hell.”

“Smells like it.”
I pat him on the back and give him an accusatory look.

“What?” He
looks down at himself. “Do I smell?”

“No, you smell
like candy...” I narrow my eyes at him and finish my sentence
silently,
and girl.

“You're imaging
things.” He pushes past me to the house. “I'm going to
change out of the hell clothes.”

“Okay.” I
give him a knowing smile.

Stop,
he says in
my head, “Oh, by the way, thanks for clearing the branches out
of the driveway.” He addresses Cole and Tor.

“Anytime, babe.”
Cole blows him a kiss. Strange discourse these two always have.

“Sure thing,
honey.” Tor quirks his brows. “You owe me.”

“Yeah, why don't
you bank that?” He disappears into the house.

Brogan and Trevor are
watching something on a phone. Trevor has a look of astonishment on
his face. “Oh my God, this is...”

I walk up behind them.
“What?”

Brogan presses the
phone to his chest. “Nothing.”

“What is it?”
I ask, then look at Cole and Lili.

Cole shakes his head in
shame; Lili just looks disgusted. Kyle finally fesses up. “Joey
sent Brogan some links for wolf porn.”

“Shut up, there
is not wolf porn.” I'm sure my expression looks like I smell
something bad.

No one answers me. “You
guys are gross.”

“It's a natural
thing,” Trevor defends.

“If you're a
pig.” My lip snarls at the thought of how disgusting it is.

“I'm with Claire
on this,” Lili says, looking at Brogan with wide eyes.

“Sorry.”
Brogan pushes a button and screen goes dark.

“It's just a
natural thing,” Cole defends them.

I shoot Cole a look
more powerful than a slap in the face. “Really? You too?”

“Everyone looks
at porn.” Kyle gives me a consoling smile, trying to break the
ugly truth to me.

“I don't,”
I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

Trevor sits in one of
the rockers. “Claire, you either look at porn or lie about
looking at porn. One or the other.”

“I don't do
either,” I protest.

“Me neither,”
Lili chimes in. “It's just so....eew.”

Locke comes back out on
the porch wearing a t-shirt that looks like it's been ironed. “What
did I miss?”

I look at him, pursing
my lips. “Joey's wolf porn.”

His eyes light up. “Oh,
I know. He sent it to me. That was awesome.”

Disappointment floods
me. “Not you, too.”

He glances at me
apologetically. “There are two kinds of people, Claire...”

“Yeah, yeah,
people who look at porn and people who lie about it.”

“See, you know
the rule.” He nods and takes a seat.

Lili inhales a breath
to protest; I put my hand on hers and shake my head. It's not worth
rehashing the argument.

“My favorite
rule, though, is rule thirty-four,” Tor says flatly.

“Oh no.” I
shake my head, waiting, because I know Lili's going to ask. She
hasn't had the benefit of all of this testosterone and angst for
years.

“What is rule
thirty-four?” she asks.

“Here we go.”
I roll my eyes and look at my water bottle.

Cole's satisfied smile
shows that he's enjoying this way too much. “Need something
stronger?”

I widen my eyes and
nod. He goes to the kitchen to make my favorite blue drink.

“Rule thirty-four
is that anything you can think of, there's been porn made of it,”
Rabbit adds to the conversation. My heart hurts a little thinking of
my innocent Rabbit watching porn.

“No way.”
Lili shakes her head. “Anything?”

“Yes, anything.”
I nod and I really hope she doesn't fall deeper into this trap.

“So like...”
She thinks for a moment, and most of me wants to stop her, but I
figure I shouldn't be the only female on the planet scared by this.
“Garden tools.”

“Oh, come on, too
easy.” Kyle types away on his phone and shows her the screen.

Her expression falls to
disgust in less than half a second. “Oh, God.”

This isn't going to end
here. Now we are going to play the game of who can come up with
something that might not fall under rule thirty-four. I've played
this game enough to know better.

Cole comes back from
the kitchen with my drink.
My lady
. He hands it to me and rubs
his pinky along the outside of mine without anyone seeing. I smile,
lost in him for a moment. “Thank you.”

Lili has named a few
more things that all have confirmed porn sites. “Okay,
sandbox,” she blurts out.

My eyes pop open. “NO!”

All the boys agree, all
saying, “No, you don't want to go there.”

“Really?”
she asks with disbelief. “How bad can it be?”

I turn to her and say
in all seriousness, “It falls under the very worst of the
categories of shit you can't unsee.” I shake my head. “Just
don't.”

She sits back in her
chair, shaking her head, “I don't think I'll ever be the same.”

“You won't. But
hey, at least now I have a support group.” I put my arm around
her. “It will be okay.”

“No, I don't
think it will.”

It's the wee hours of
the morning, and Cole and I are still on the porch. Everyone else has
either gone to bed or is playing pool. I love how we can talk for
hours and hours and never run out of things to say. When we are
quiet, it’s never because we've run out of conversation; it's
because we just want to enjoy each other's presence. It feels like it
would be like this forever, if we were allowed to have a forever.

He leans forward in his
chair to take his boots off. “Run?”

I'm feeling playful.
“Hide and seek?”

“That works,”
he says, taking off his pants. I spin around fast as he puts the
pants in the backpack on the porch. I throw it over my shoulder. He
shifts and nuzzles my hand.

I want to scratch his
ears and rub under his chin. But I don't. He goes down the steps and
turns to looks back up at me. “You're it,” I whisper, and
jump over him and disappear into the woods.

He's been on to me for
a while, so keeping to the trees doesn't work as well as it once did.
We stalk through the woods and he barely catches me a couple of
times. I hear the echo of my laughter dancing through the trees like
a pleasant memory.

I get a decent
distance, crouch down, resting my back against a tree, and catch my
breath. A purple butterfly flutters by, putting me on alert, but I
neither feel nor smell his presence. I study the chaos and beauty in
its flight, so much like Cole and me. Our love, what we have for each
other that we can express, so much love that we can't, things we
can't do. Like the legend says: if you touch the wings of a
butterfly, it will die. Cole and I live with the ubiquitous threat
that, should we ever fulfill our desire, our love will die. I huff
out a laugh as the butterfly comes to a rest on my outstretched
finger. Studying it, I smile, knowing that the legend isn't true.
They really don't die if you touch their wings. As for Cole and I,
that's not a theory that I'm willing to test. My mood falls slightly,
until I feel him getting closer.

Cole's footfalls on the
pine straw are still loud, even though he's in wolf form. I push
myself up and away from the tree; he's behind me. He pounces on me,
knocking me down. His tail is wagging and he's licking my face.

“Stop, it's so
gross!” I say through my laughter.

He shifts into human
form and stills himself inches from my face, staring directly into my
eyes. In that moment, we gaze at one another with a sad desperation.
He leans closer and whispers, “Claire, I'm going to kiss you.”
He doesn't wait for a response; he crashes down on me.

His full lips against
mine send a radioactive surge through my whole body, igniting
something previously unknown. Without thinking about it, my fingers
tangle through his hair to pull him in tighter, closer. I can't get
enough of him. Our motions become forceful, and I nip at his bottom
lip. We get completely caught up in the moment, like we're floating
on air. Encapsulated in our own bubble where no one can tell us that
we're wrong, or judge us. Our simple sin, giving in to what must be
right in this moment. This one perfect moment.

He tries to pull away,
but I don't let him. I know that when I feel the absence of him on my
lips, something in me will break. He intensifies the kiss, then
pulls away fast. “Claire, I need my pants.”

“Oh, God.”
I forgot he was naked and I'm mortified.

He rolls off, turning
his back to me. I look away and take the backpack off, throwing it
over my shoulder to him. I don't turn around until I hear his zipper
go up.

He reaches into his
pocket and takes out his phone. “Shit.” He throws his
head back.

“What's wrong?”

“I missed
curfew.” He pauses and looks from the phone to me. “By
like five hours.”

“Whoops.”
My eyes widen. “Someone's in trouble.”

“Nothing I can do
about it now.” He slides his phone in his pocket.

“Watch the
sunrise with me?”

“I thought you
would never ask.” He tries to intertwine our fingers, but my
hands are too small. With a smile, I ball my hand so he can envelope
it in his as he leads me toward the clearing.

We sit side by side; I
need to be close to him. I lean my head on his shoulder. He runs his
fingers up my arm, finding my scar. “What's this from?”

My mood falls a little.
“Battle wound.”

“Why didn't you
heal it?” Curiosity laces his tone.

“We tried, it
would never heal completely. I've just accepted that I'm going to
have a scar. Likely one of many.” I blow out a discrete breath.

He turns my arm over,
studying it, brushing his fingers over the rings of crescent moons
that circle my wrist forming links of a chain. “Is there a
symbolism?”

I inhale, not wanting
to answer or talk about it. I look him directly in the eye, wishing
that the sun would pop up over the horizon fast, or that the earth
would open up and swallow me.

“What is it?”
he prompts me.

“My kills.”
I say it quietly.

He doesn't say anything
for a long time as he studies the rings, counting the number of
moons. “That's a lot of kills. One moon per?” He stares
into my eyes.

I only nod.

He pulls his lips into
a tight smile. “You're a hunter.”

“You're a wolf.”
I break the gaze and look straight ahead, watching the sky shift and
change into a gorgeous show of pinks, oranges, and reds. Cole pulls
me in closer and kisses the top of my head.

“Wings of a
butterfly,” I barely whisper.

The
past few nights with Cole have been nothing less than magical. Every
moment with him is like I'm taking my first breath. We have been more
careful about physical contact; it's too intense. It's not that we've
talked about it, but we haven't held hands or cuddled watching the
sunrise. It's okay; it’s enough for me to be close to him.

I scroll through the
time lapse of the blood cells on my computer. If only there was some
clue as to what happened with Brogan. It was the exact same
ingredients that Trevor took, with no effect at all. There was just a
bigger dose. I can't believe that it would make that much of a
difference.

I blow out a frustrated
breath and wish that I wore glasses so I could take them off and
throw them on my desk angrily.

Think, Claire. What was
the difference?

Before any of the boys
take the elixirs, I always try them first to make sure that they're
safe and won't make anyone sick. Man, there have been a couple of
rough nights of vomiting with some of the crazy concoctions I've come
up with.