Moon Crossed (Werewolf Hunter Series): Season 1 (Episodes 1-6) (Crescent Hunter) (51 page)

I want to set up a
meeting with Pike and the council. ~Claire

He won't agree to
that, he wants to talk to you alone. ~Riker

Why? ~Claire

I might as well be
blunt; he has no reason to want to talk to me alone, other than to
kill me. That would put a damper on my day.

Because he thinks
you are under Hayden's control. ~Riker

More like under his
protection, which I wouldn't need if Pike wasn't making threats
against me. ~Claire

I don't want this
conversation to turn hostile, but I need to stay strong.

As long as he's
making your decisions for you, there's going to be a problem. ~Riker

I make my own
decisions and there's no way I'll agree meet alone. He won't be
alone. He can meet me before the council or we can meet with an equal
number of reps. ~Claire

I'll talk to him.
~Riker

Thanks ~Claire

That was a waste of
time.

Twelve days

Aside from Tor stopping
by once for a few minutes, I haven't seen or heard from any of the
boys. Cole hasn't answered either. I have been alone for twelve days.
Even Aunt Rain has been on the move with the hunters, trying to track
down the moon-touched wolves in Amicalola.

She's checked in a few
times and hasn't heard from Trevor. Tor told me that everyone was
okay, just that they were busy. Talk about a bunch of crap; this
shouldn't be this way. We all knew what would happen if one of them
became moon-touched. I did the right thing.

I'm crawling the walls
from the silence in this house. I haven't been able to focus on my
work. I go down to my office and just stare at my computer. In the
lab, I just stare at the bubbling liquids and growing cultures.

My pack is gone, and I
feel so lost without them. I don't know where they are, if they're
safe, or if they're moon-touched. Tor could be lying to me. Although
I don't think he would.

With my red marker I X
out another day on the calendar. School is starting up soon, and I
need to register for classes. I log on to the college website and go
to the registration page.

“Registration
closed.”

What? How did this
happen? I click around the website and realize that registration was
a week ago. How did I miss that?

I throw the mouse
across the room. I can't do anything right. Everything just feels
like it's closing in. I haven't gone for a run in days because it's
too dangerous, and because I really can't seem to motivate myself to
do anything.

I have to do something.
I can't just keep sitting here moping and screwing up everything else
in my life. There has to be a way for me to sneak past the guards; if
I don't get out of here and let out some steam, I'm going to lose it.

It's late, so I may be
able to figure out a way past them right now. I lace my boots up and
go out the back door. The chair that Cole used to sit in mocks me,
and I look at it with disdain. I want to set it on fire so I never
have to see it empty again. I give it a good kick and trot down the
stairs, snarling toward the planters, which are haunting me with
their darkness.

“Claire, how are
you?” Brent asks in a cheery voice.

With my best fake smile
on, I say, “I'm all right.”

“Where are you
headed?” he asks with a hint of warning in his voice.

“I'm going over
to Aunt Rain's to look for a number in her address book.” I'm
hoping that lie will quiet him so that I can get out of here.

“Whose number?”
he asks.

“Zane.”
It's the first name that comes to mind.

He lets out a laugh.
“I've got that number.”

“Really?” I
have to come up with another excuse to get out of here.

“Of course, he's
my son.” He smiles and pulls out his cell phone. “Here,
I'll send it to you.”

“That'd be
awesome.” I continue walking toward Aunt Rain's house.
“Thanks.”

“Why are you
still walking?” he asks.

“I also want to
check on her fish. She's been gone for like a week.” I hope he
doesn't know that she doesn't have fish.

“Okay, why don't
I go with you?” he suggests.

“It's okay, I'm
just going to be really quick.” I take off before he can
respond.

Once I'm out of sight,
I head for the deep woods toward the clearing. I won’t be able
to stay long enough to watch the sunrise. It'll be nice to run, and
I'm always able to find peace there.

Flying through the
forest feels good. It's as though I've been cooped up for years. I
can smell Cole's scent. He's been here recently.

Panting from the
vigorous run, I sit to recover, staring off into the darkness of
night. How can I possibly wrap my brain around what's happening with
Cole? I've been honest and realistic with him:
we have no future, so we need to just
enjoy what we have in the now, while we can. It doesn't matter how I
feel, how much I've grown to love him; I know this has an expiration
date, but we can still have our friendship. I'm okay with that. I
would rather live a life with him as just my friend than not have him
at all.

He became a fundamental
part of me,
inside my heart and soul. The days feel
gray and heavy with him gone. So much of my life has lost its luster
with him missing from it.

He convinced me that we
had a bond, a connection that was like no other. He made me believe
it, feel it. My head hangs in the defeat of my stupidity. It was
nothing but lies, and I gobbled them down like candy.

Locke and Trevor warned
me, but I didn't listen. Why? I try to hold back the tears that want
to fall for my broken heart. He's not worth crying over. I shake my
head and pull my knees tighter into my chest.

How could he spend so
much time with me? Laugh with me, share his hopes and dreams. His
greatest fears, darkest moments. All a manipulation to get me into
bed.

He's probably lived a
life of privilege, never knowing real hardship. All of the bullshit
about his darkness was some sort of ploy he knew would appeal to me.

I curl up as tight as I
can to hold in the grief. If I let it out, I'm afraid it will never
stop flowing.

There's no one to help
me mend this wound.

A million tears could
fall from my soul and never reach the bottom of my sorrow. The
solitude and lack of life in my house is devouring my spirit. I want
to scream out and curse my existence. I just wish that I could
disappear into the soil and never feel anything again.

Heartbreak is something
that everyone deals with, but no one could ever understand this
desolation. First Cole, and the lies he's been feeding me for months.
That hurt, made me feel small, like I am nothing but a notch on a
bedpost.

But now Locke. I
haven't felt this kind of anguish since my father's last breath. My
hand touches my cheek. His final words were a warning about wolves,
that they couldn't be trusted. Why didn't I listen? My life would be
so much less complicated, and this isolation wouldn't hurt so much if
it's all I had ever known.

Would I give up the
laughter, the friendship?

Yes.

It would be better than
having felt any of this. Every day, I keep telling myself that it
won't be much longer before there's nothing left and the pain will
stop. But every day I wake up and it's there. More darkness
assimilating my heart and what goodness lived in it.

I throw my head up and
pray for something heavy to fall on me, or lightning to strike me
dead. But it won't. I wipe the moisture from my cheeks.

The sensation of a
wolf-borne nearby prickles at the back of my neck. My instincts put
me in killing mode. I don't have any of my gear, just one small
silver dagger. Awesome, Claire, you're a genius.

My spirits lift for the
first time in days; it could be Locke. I stand at the ready, waiting
for a wolf to come into view. There are no footsteps, breathing, or
even a heartbeat. Keeping a sharp eye on the surrounding woods, I
scurry up the tree to be safe, waiting for the wolf-borne to come
close enough to see who it is.

The feeling is vaguely
familiar, not enough that I recognize him. I remain still, focusing
to slow my breaths. The wolf comes into the clearing, sniffing near
where I was sitting.

A slight recognition
hits me. I do know this wolf. But who is it? Is he friendly, or here
to kill me? As the thoughts race through my mind, my heart rate
quickens.

Cole's presence hits me
like a ton of bricks, and I suck in a breath. The wolf below hears it
and looks up.

“Hey.”
Cole's voice draws the wolf's attention.

The wolf below shifts
into human form. It's Ben. “Cole?”

“Yeah, man. What
are you doing out here?” Cole asks, his eyes darting around on
alert.

“Just
patrolling,” Ben answers cautiously. “What about you?”

“The same.”
That seems unlikely.

“Hayden didn't
mention that you would be here.” Ben seems suspicious of Cole,
taking two steps away from him.

“I'm not out here
for Hayden.” Cole forces an insincere smile.

“Who are you out
here for?” Ben takes two more steps away from Cole.

“Just keeping an
eye on things.” Cole matches the steps toward him.

“You mean keeping
an eye on Claire?” His tone is challenging.

Cole's demeanor
stiffens at the mention of my name, and he narrows his eyes at Ben.
“Just things.”

“Huh, okay then.
I'm going to head back around the perimeter.” Ben shifts and
takes off quickly into the woods. They were both uneasy, and I can
see Cole relax slightly when Ben is out of sight.

He goes to where I was
sitting and inhales deeply, looking around. His head tilts slightly
upward. I'm not sure if I want him to see me or not. A hot streak of
something indescribable runs through me; I'm excited and scared at
the same time. I'm not sure if I'm angry, sad, happy, or what.

He stops, dropping his
gaze to the ground and shaking his head. After looking longingly
where the sun would come up, he walks away with his head hung.

Do I call out to him?
Did he feel me? I know he must have smelled me. He had to have known
I was here.

My self-doubt and pride
take over my thoughts. Even if he was here to see me, it isn't
because he cares or misses me. There has to be some other motive.
Something I'm glad that I avoided. It hurts to watch him disappear
into the forest. Smelling his scent softens my heart just a little,
but not enough to make me want to call out to him.

I've deleted his number
from my phone so I don't make any more of an ass of myself, trying to
contact him. He doesn't return my texts. Why am I going to put myself
out there like that? I think he's made enough of a fool of me in all
of this. Whatever it is that he would have
to say I'm sure would be a lie, designed
to get something that he wants from me.

Shifting my weight on
the branch causes it to crackle loudly enough for him to hear. He
reappears in the clearing and looks straight up at me. Our eyes meet
and we are both filled with joyful apprehension. The branch gives
under me, and I grab onto the next one to keep from falling.

“Looks like my
monkey has a problem.” He smirks at my predicament.

“Monkey?”
I'm holding on for dear life, and I can't get good purchase on the
branch.

“You heard me.”
He chuckles.

“Screw yourself.”

“Why don't you
just come on down from there?” he says in a lighthearted tone.

Trusting him is a
problem. “Why are you here?”

“I needed some
air.” He shrugs, trying to mask his smile.

“You needed
this
air?” I hope he can feel the sarcasm.

“Yeah.” He
inhales a breath. “I did.”

The branch breaks and I
fall down, unable to stop myself. Cole catches me before I hit the
ground, but it's awkward. His arms are around my torso and my feet
are dangling. We are eye to eye, both frozen, staring at each other.

The intensity of our
gaze is too much, and I have to look away. “You can put me down
now.”

“Are you going to
run away if I do?” He moves his lips closer to my ear, and I
feel his breath brushing by.

“Afraid that I've
learned something from your bag of tricks?” I inhale in the
hopes of holding onto what little anger I have left. The sensation of
his arms around me rakes through my body like a speeding train. It
feels right, being this close to him. I want to be closer.

“Are you?”
He squints one eye.

“Probably.”
My head is turned away from his.

“Then no, I'm not
putting you down.”

“Cole, put me
down.” Not being in control is expanding my anger. “I
don't want to have to hurt you.” Or do I?

He releases me and I
gain my footing, ready to run if I need to. “Thank you.”
I take three chilly steps back.