Broken Moon: Part 1

Claudia King

Published by Claudia
King at Smashwords

Copyright
©
2013
Claudia King

Smashwords Edition,
License Notes

This ebook is licensed
for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or
given away to other people. If you would like to share this book
with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each
recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or
it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to
Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Proceeds from sales
directly help this author to continue doing what she loves, and to
share it with you the reader!

* * * * *

* * * * *

The taste of rain in
his mouth and the chill of icy sleet running down the back of his
neck didn't bother him. He was used to it. Even with his hunting
jacket soaked through and his dark hair hanging in wet locks before
his eyes he carried on, pressing up the mountain slope to where the
weather was harsher, the wind colder.

They were stalking him,
he could tell. Half a dozen times he'd tried to climb the mountain
to find their pack, and now, at last, they had been the ones to
find him.

He smiled to himself,
exhausted, and forced his thickly muscled body onwards up the steep
slope, the forest thinning and giving way to scattered pine trees,
the grass becoming patchy beneath his boots where snow blown down
from the chilly heights had smothered it.

In the back of his mind
his wolf whispered to him, like a wild animal dogging his every
step, trying to latch on and sink in its teeth the second he
faltered.

You need me. You need
my strength. They'll come for you soon.

He grit his teeth and
pushed his wolf to the back of his mind. The thoughts were his own,
but they weren't born of the human part of him. He knew the steep
slope would be made easier by his wolf's powerful legs, the cold
more tolerable by a thick coat of fur, but he refused.

They were close now.
Even without the sharp senses of his wolf he could hear their paws
disturbing the rocks and smell their pack-scent on the wind. No
doubt they were waiting for him to turn back, as he had always done
before, but not this time.

He forced his aching
legs to keep moving forward. Years of rough living had chiselled
him into a rugged, weather-hardened creature, and he could endure
far beyond the point at which most others would give up. He grit
his teeth, forcing his endurance to the limit in a silent challenge
to his pursuers. Would the harsh weather get to them first, or to
him?

As long as they were
out there, he wouldn't stop. He'd force them to make the first
move.

His boots slipped on a
heap of loose shale and he dropped to one knee, cursing through his
teeth as pain shot up his leg. He curled his fingers into the
grass, struggling to drag himself back to his feet, and then he saw
them.

They slunk out from
behind the trees and rocks all at the same time, far nearer than
he'd expected.

He was a large wolf, an
alpha among his kind, but every one of these creatures matched him
in size. Half a dozen pairs of animal eyes glistened through the
rain, watching him with human intelligence. They were werewolves,
like him, and he was trespassing in their territory.

He huffed a breathless
sigh and sat down on the slope, closing his eyes for a moment as he
fought the maddening urge of his wolf prickling at the back of his
mind.

Fight them. You need
me. Fight them.

A pair of boots
crunched on the shale as the lead wolf took his human form,
standing just a few feet away.

"This is the third time
we've seen you in our territory. What are you doing here?"

He smiled, wiping the
wet strands of hair away from his face as he looked up at the
leader, blinking through the rain. "Looking for you. I'm getting
close to your pack, aren't I? Otherwise you'd never have shown your
faces. And this is the fifth time I've been up here."

"Why?" The leader
narrowed his eyes, taking a step forward and bending down on one
knee to meet the eyes of the other wolf. His hair was cropped
short, his gloves and trench coat lending him an almost military
air.

"Because you're the
only pack I haven't found yet. You're the Highland Pack, aren't
you? Hiding up in the mountains, hidden away from everyone."

The leader ignored his
question. "You're a loner?"

He nodded.

"How long?"

"Two years, give or
take."

"What happened to your
last pack? Did they drive you out?"

He glared at the
leader, and for a moment he almost gave in to the furious urges of
his wolf. "I left. There was no place for me there."

"The Highland Pack
doesn't take in strays."

"I never asked you to
take me in."

The leader stared at
him for a long moment before responding. "Two years is a long time
to be out there on your own. I'm surprised you didn't go
feral."

"Don't tempt me."

One of the other wolves
growled, baring his fangs as he inched forward until the leader
held up a hand to halt him. He regarded the stranger in silence
once more, then offered him his hand.

"Our elders will want
to talk with you, then we'll decide what to do. What's your
name?"

He managed to stifle
his sigh of relief as he took the leader's hand, rising to his feet
with a groan.

"Cyan."

* * * * *

April hugged her
bedsheets, clinging on to their lingering warmth as the fire in her
cabin's hearth died down and the icy chill from outside crept in
through the boards. Hail and sleet drummed against the windows, and
she knew the winter snow would be here before long. If there was
one thing she disliked about her home, it was the cold.

With a reluctant
grumble she dragged herself out of bed, the sheets still clutched
to her body, and shuffled over to the hearth to feed fresh logs
into the coals. She would need to chop fresh wood today to build up
her stocks for the winter. She'd put off replenishing the log pile
outside all summer, and now it was coming back to bite her. If the
weather got much colder she'd have to start sleeping in her wolf
form again, and she hated having to brush hairs out of the sheets
every morning when she did that.

A sharp rap on the
door made her jump, and she peeked out past the curtains hesitantly
before breathing a sigh of relief. It was only Harper. No need to
get dressed for him.

A
smile lit the corner of her lips. Probably every reason to
stay
undressed.

April drew back the
latch, wincing as a gush of icy air and rain blew in along with
Harper and his heavy boots, her mate-to-be dripping all over the
floorboards as he hunched his shoulders and shivered.

"You brought in all
the cold," she complained, latching the door shut again and
hurrying back to the warmth of her bed against the far wall.

"I needed you to warm
me up." He grinned, taking off his boots and hanging his jacket on
the back of the door without her even having to ask this time.
Good. At least he was learning.

"What are you doing up
this early, anyway?" she said. "You're not on hunting duty today,
are you?"

"No, but Blackthorn
and some of the others are out on patrol. He wanted me to keep an
eye on the camp, just in case."

April shook her head.
"He's too paranoid. And aren't you shirking your duties, coming in
to see me when you're supposed to be keeping our pack safe from the
terrors of the wilderness?" She rolled her eyes, blowing a tangle
of red hair out of her face as Harper eased off his damp trousers
and dropped to the bed beside her with a chuckle.

"Most girls would be
flattered by the attention."

"You've only known,
like, a couple of dozen girls in your whole life."

"Hey, that's not
true." He mock-frowned, sliding an arm around her waist. "I got to
know lots of girls when they sent us off to school with the regular
kids."

"Yeah, I guess so,"
she sighed. "I liked it when they let us do that. It was nice
seeing how people who aren't werewolves live. Their houses had
better heating than ours."

"But they don't get
all of this natural beauty to enjoy down in the city," Harper
replied, leaning up to kiss her cheek.

April smiled, finally
letting go of the sheets and curling her arm around her partner.
She liked these moments when he was sweet. It reminded her of when
they were younger, when the idea of playing "mates" was just a
silly childhood game. She'd never really understood what it would
be like to make a life with Harper back then, to share a home,
maybe even have children one day if they were lucky.

She shivered again,
and clutched the sheets back to her breast.

"Still cold?" he
said.

She nodded quickly,
forcing her thoughts back to the present. She was lucky, really, to
have someone like Harper who cared for her. If it weren't for him
the elders would have paired her up with another mate the second
she hit adulthood, and she wouldn't have had much say in the
matter. Not that the other arranged couples in the pack were
unhappy, but the idea of it had always unnerved her. She sometimes
lay awake at night wondering what it would have been like to be
paired with one of the older males, Blackthorn, or Hadrian, or even
Gene. Moving into their cabin and going to their bed every
night...

She bit her lip and
chased the unwanted thoughts away again. That didn't matter when
she had Harper.

The pressure on the
two of them to complete their mating had been minimal, but it was
always there in the background, hanging over her uncertainly. Soon
the day would come when she'd have to give up her own cosy cabin
and move into his.

It was as good a
future as any female in the Highland Pack could have asked for,
really.

Harper's lips brushed
her bare shoulder, their warmth sending a tingle through her body
as his free hand moved beneath the sheets to caress her bare
hip.

"Your fingers are
cold," she said softly, looking down into his sparkling eyes and
running her fingers through his fair hair.

"I can always leave you
to warm up by yourself, if you'd like," he replied, a teasing smile
on his lips.

April returned the
smile and shook her head, breathing in sharply as his cool hand
traced the softly defined muscles of her stomach, his fingers
brushing the dip of her navel.

Harper was a good
friend. A good lover. And he would make a good mate. She had no
reason to complain.

Easing her down on the
bed he slid his arm out from behind her back and straightened up to
remove his shirt and underwear, casting them aside on the cabin
floor as April ran her tongue teasingly over her lips, rubbing her
thighs together in expectation as the familiar tingle of excitement
built in her belly. It always made her feel young and girlish,
reminding her of the first night her childhood friend had kissed
her and taken her virginity, their sweaty, quivering bodies wrapped
together in the sheets of his bed as the firelight danced on their
skin. She had never been with anyone else since then, and doubted
she ever would.

He eased the sheets
away from her naked body and slid in beneath them, his hardness
pressing against her stomach as he took her in his arms and leaned
in for a kiss. She responded affectionately, indulging his eager
tongue in her mouth with a soft suckling and a murmur of
encouragement, parting her thighs for him as his knees eased them
apart.

His hands found her
pert breasts, teasing her excitement closer and closer to the
surface as he massaged them gently, rolling the nubs between his
fingers until they were hard and tense. Her chest rose and fell
sharply, her breath coming in gasps as she clung to Harper's
muscular shoulders, pressing her body up against his to bathe in
the sensation of his skin rubbing against hers, the teasing
pressure of his shaft resting just below her navel, twitching in
response to her quiet sounds of pleasure.

"I don't have to go
back out there," he whispered in her ear amidst a trail of warm
kisses along her cheek and neck. "We can take our time."

"You don't need to
impress me," she chuckled, twining her fingers through the hair at
the back of his neck and pursing her lips teasingly. "Just do as
you please, my alpha."

He bared his teeth in a
smile and gave her neck a sharp nip, drawing a squeak of excitement
from April as she giggled and curled her legs around his waist,
tugging him in. Needing no more encouragement, Harper reached down
and aligned himself with her moistening folds, stroking himself
gently against her opening for an agonising moment before pushing
firmly in.