Moon Called (Mercedes Thompson, #1)

by Patricia Briggs

I didn’t realize he was a werewolf at first.

He looked gaunt, as though he’d been a while without food.

I put a little force behind the ‘eat’: I wasn’t going to work with a hungry werewolf, not even almost two weeks from full moon.

I knew better than to give orders to a werewolf – it’s that whole dominance reflex thing. Werewolves’ instincts are inconvenient – that’s why they don’t tend to live long.

The pause was a dead giveaway that it wasn’t the name he usually went by. It would do for now.

MS THOMPSON, it said in heavy block letters, PLEASE KEEP YOUR FELINE OFF MY PROPERTY. IF I SEE IT AGAIN, I WILL EAT IT. The note was unsigned.

Adam Hauptman, who shared my back fence line, was the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. That there was a werewolf pack in the Tri-Cities was something of an anomaly because packs usually settle in bigger places where they can hide better, or, rarely, in smaller places they can take over.

I was almost certain he wouldn’t eat my cat, but I’d leave her inside for the next week or so to give the impression I was cowed by his threat.

The trick with werewolves is never to confront them straight on.

I love them, but I love them better at a distance.

Mac the werewolf was sitting on the step by the office door when I drove up Monday morning. I kept my face impassive and showed none of the surprisingly fierce satisfaction I felt, just handed him a heavy sack of fast-food breakfast sandwiches so I could get my key out and open the door.

Cages? I thought. Someone had been keeping Mac in a cage?

I promise you we can undo your curse.’ Undo his curse? There was no drug in the world that would undo the Change, and darn few werewolves who considered their state a curse after the first few months.

My lips curled back over my teeth – I don’t like liars, especially when they are lying about me.

He stiffened, drew in a deep breath, and looked around. ‘Mercy?’ But neither of the men paid attention when Mac caught my scent.

‘Alpha?’ he asked. ‘What’s that?’ He was new.

I met his gaze calmly, then dropped my eyes until I was looking at his shoulder instead.

He glanced at the body, closed his eyes, and swallowed. ‘I want to eat him,’ he whispered. ‘Perfectly natural,’ I told him, though I have to admit I wanted to move away from him.

I don’t remember everything that happens when …’ His voice trailed off. ‘When you’re the wolf.’ Memory came with experience and control, or so I’d been told.

‘He would have killed a boy under my protection,’ I told her. ‘I had no choice.’

I stared at him in my best imitation of my foster father and raised an eyebrow. ‘Mac, for Heaven’s sake, leave that poor dead man alone and come over here.’ He came slowly to his feet, menace clinging to him. Then he shook his head and rubbed his face, swaying a little. ‘That helped,’ he said. ‘Can you do it again?’ I tried my best. ‘Mac. Get over here right now.’ He staggered a little drunkenly over to me and sat at my feet.

You have to be a little careful; even in human form you’re going to have to deal with having a shorter temper and a lot more strength than you’re used to. Adam can teach you.’

‘I don’t get a lot of the neat things that you werewolves have. No super strength. No super healing. No pack.’ ‘No chance you might eat your friends,’ he suggested. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be funny, or if he was serious.

One of the benefits of being a werewolf is a long life.’ If you can control the wolf – but Adam could explain that part better than me.

Mac whined eagerly, then bowed his head and pressed it against my thigh so that he couldn’t see. The sound drew Adam’s attention from the body to the boy at my feet.

‘Careful,’ he whispered. It wasn’t a threat, it was a warning. Okay. He was scary. Really scary. He’d probably have been scary even when he was just a human. But it wouldn’t do to let him know he intimidated me.

‘For a smart girl, you’re pretty stupid sometimes,’ he said, his voice rich and gentle so as not to startle the werewolf by my side. ‘Locking yourself in a garage with a new wolf and a dead body isn’t the smartest thing you could have done. I don’t have a connection with him yet. It would help if you have his real name.’

The friction of his movement rucked my shirt up and he licked my bare skin. To an outsider it might have looked sensual, but the abdomen is a vulnerable spot on the body, a favorite of predators. ‘You smell good,’ he whispered.

Mac jerked his head away from me but tightened his arms painfully on my hips. He looked at Adam and growled, a low rumble that caused his chest to vibrate against my leg.

‘Mine,’ he said. Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t think so. She is mine.’ It would have been flattering, I thought, except that at least one of them was talking about dinner and I wasn’t certain about the other.

‘Look at me,’ said Adam, and even though the dark, raspy voice hadn’t been directed at me, I found myself unable to pull my eyes off him.

Insulting witches is right up there on the stupid list with enraging Alpha werewolves and cuddling with a new wolf next to a dead body: all of which I’d done tonight. I couldn’t help it, though.

Werewolves, like other predators, respect bravado. If you are too careful not to anger them, they’ll see it as a weakness – and weak things are prey.

If I yelled, Adam would hear, but, as I told him earlier, I didn’t belong to him. He was possessive enough, thank you.

I couldn’t smell anything that would tell me who had killed Mac and left him as a warning.

In a formal ceremony they were savaged by Bran, or by some other wolf who loved them, in the hopes that they would rise Changed. Most of them didn’t make it.

Samuel glanced back at me, then swore. ‘If all you can do is snivel, then get the hell out of here.’ Despite his condition, Adam growled, swiveling his head to look at Samuel.

my mother once told me that you had to trust that the first thing out of a person’s mouth was truth. After they have a chance to think about it, they’ll change what they say to be more socially acceptable,

‘Adam tore a strip off me for being so hard on you,’

His body was lovely, but I don’t know if anyone else would have called him handsome. He certainly didn’t have Adam’s strikingly beautiful features. Sam’s eyes were deeply set, his nose was too long, his mouth too wide.

Looking at his face, I wasn’t objective enough to decide how attractive he was: he was just Sam who had been my friend, my defender, and my sweetheart.

She died trying to become a werewolf because, she’d told me, every year she got older and he didn’t.

which is why I asked Adam to keep an eye on you for me when you moved into his territory.’ Ah, I thought and tried not to look as devastated as I felt. So Adam had been ordered to look after me?

Samuel, having successfully baited me, reached over and patted my leg. I just happened to glance at Adam’s face, and I saw his eyes lighten from chocolate to amber as his gaze narrowed on Samuel’s hand

‘Don’t touch her,’ whispered Adam. There was a shadow of threat in his voice, and he must have heard it, too, because he added, ‘Please.’

The last word stopped the nasty comment I’d readied because I remembered that Adam was still hurt, still struggling to control his wolf, and the conversation we’d been having hadn’t been designed to calm him.

But it wasn’t my temper I should have been worried about. Samuel’s hand turned until his fingers spanned the top of my thigh, and he squeezed. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt. I’m not certain Adam would have even noticed except tha...

‘I thought you were here to make sure no one challenged Adam until he was well – not challenge him yourself.’ ‘You don’t belong to him,’ he snapped back, his white teeth clicking together sharply.

He’s trying to control his wolf after nearly being killed. Two unmated male werewolves always get territorial in the presence of a female – you know that better than I do. You’re supposed to be the one with all this control, and you’re behaving worse than he is.’ I sucked in air tainted by the traffic.

I scooted in the driver’s seat and gave Adam a cautious look – but his eyes were closed.