Page 105 of Crimson Moon Falling

I nodded, exhausted. My body still ached where the ogre had punched and tackled me. Jamie and Parker came back into the room as Ash finished up. Parker scanned me, and his shoulders loosened a little.

“Tell us what happened.” Conall’s voice was quiet, but I felt his wolf, pacing and snarling.

So I told them about the mittens with grounding wires, Wilson’s reasons for taking me, and his questions. When I told them about what the doctor had done to me, Conall’s eyes bled gold again, and sharp, peppery rage bled off the men standing around the room.

“What was the doctor’s name?” Parker asked in a soft voice.

“Doctor Becker,” I whispered.

My implant helped me to organize the information into clean, concise facts, but my voice shook a few times. “When Wilson told me he planned to torture me, I burned through the restraints. I… couldn’t stay there,” I whispered.

Jamie stood by the window, his profile sharp against the glass. Parker leaned against the far wall, his arms crossed, his eyes black and cold.

Ash packed his supplies with deliberate care, his movements unhurried. “The sexual assault is its own trauma,” he informed me quietly. “It will surface later. Be ready for it.”

“Alright,” I whispered.

Conall’s jaw worked, his rage pouring through the bond, a contained inferno that charged the air. He gently stroked my hair.

“They’re dead.” It wasn’t a threat, just a statement of fact. “Every one of them.”

“Not yet.” I straightened and looked around. “I need to go back to Wyoming, and you need to inform the Pack Council about what happened.”

“Excuse me?” Jamie cocked an eyebrow. “You were kidnapped, assaulted, had a run-in with Marlowe, and burned the shit out of yourself. And you want to go back to work?”

“Langston is just a pawn, and Marlowe is a wildcard, but the long-term threat is Apex and the government takeover,” I argued. “We also need to prove Apex is responsible, and shut down the site before it becomes operational.”

“They’re using the shifter registration vote as ‘the shiny object’ for something bigger,” Parker agreed.

“You have to hand it to those soulless fuckers,” Jamie sighed. “They’re good at chumming the waters to cover their true objectives.”

“I’m so close. I have to finish the investigation, then we need to neutralize Wilson, and take Apex out. But you need to mobilize the Packs.”

Conall studied me. His eyes were back to gray, but his wolf still lingered. “You’re not going anywhere until you stabilize and those burns heal a little more.”

He had a point. “Then we go in forty-eight hours. If we don’t do it together, I’ll do it alone.” I held his gaze.

The bond between us hummed, and his reluctance and protectiveness curled around me as his thumb brushed my cheekbone. “Forty-eight hours,” he repeated, his voice rough.

Ash gathered the medical supplies and Jamie pushed off the window frame. “I’ll call Flint. You’ll need some clothes and gear.”

Parker squeezed my shoulder and followed them out. Conall’s arms tightened around me, and my head dropped to his chest, his heartbeat steady under my ear. The bond was alive and warm.

The pain in my ankles took my breath away, my wrist ached, and my ribs protested with every breath. But the implant hummed, cool and analytical, already running scenarios.

We had forty-eight hours, then I was going after Wilson Apex. With or without Conall.

Chapter 33

Riley

The burns on my wrist had faded from angry red to a dull, mottled pink, thanks to Ash’s salve and a visit from a Pack Homeopath. My ankles were still a mess, but my implant registered the pain and filed it under manageable.

I didn’t appreciate the thing minimizing my pain to manageable, and sent a mental image of me digging it out with a rusty spoon. It sent back a little zap through my nervous system. If I didn’t know better, I thought the thing was teasing me.

A backpack sat open on the floor, stuffed with clothes and toiletries Flint had sent me over the past two days. Behind me, the bed was rumpled, and I stood in Conall’s shirt. He’d been creative last night, trying to keep my mind off my injuries. Heat crept up my neck as I flashed back to his talented mouth and long, vibrating growls.

Conall walked in, his energy filling the room. “You’re packed.” His voice was quiet.