plik

Remy must learn to put his doubts aside and become the
Alpha he needs to be to protect his pack and his new blind
vampire mate.

Remy is a wolf shifter who loves getting under the hood of a
beauty with lots of horses and hates his mother nagging him
to  start  having  pups. When  he  is  summoned  to  his  asshole
alpha's house, things go from bad to worse as he fails a test
of  loyalty  by  refusing  to  torture  and  kill  a  vampire.  He's
forced to challenge for the position as Alpha. No one is more
surprised than he is  when he actually  wins. But  what  does
he know about running a pack?

Remy soon realizes the severely wounded male vampire

is  his  mate.  Skylar’s  coven  sent  him  to  investigate  rumors
about  a  poison  targeting  vampires.  Skylar  is  drop-dead
gorgeous, with the brightest blue eyes Remy has ever seen.
He's also blind. Will forces outside their control and the new
responsibilities facing Remy put a stop to their  mating  and
their life together before it begins?

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5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and
do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of
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is appreciated.

This  book  is  a  work  of  fiction.  Names,  characters,  places,
and  incidents  either  are  products  of  the  author’s
imagination  or  are  used  fictitiously.  Any  resemblance  to
actual  events  or  locales  or  persons,  living  or  dead,  is
entirely coincidental.

Blind Under the Moon

ISBN: 978-1-77111-887-3

Cover art by Carmen Waters

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YLVLW 683(5,25=25* IRU PRUH PP ERRNV

Chapter One

emy was pretty sure this was the sulkiest day ever. It
was bad enough his mother had come to where he

worked and hounded him about finding a nice bitch to settle
down  with  and  have  pups,  but  he'd  been  teaching  the
apprentices  about  the  intricacies  of  engine  diagnostics  and
mapping on the boss's Mitsubishi Evo. Getting brow beaten
by his mother about how he wasn't really gay was not a good
way to gain their respect.

The boss man was totally in love with the vehicles from

the Fast and Furious films. He and Gregg had been the ones
who actually supplied and maintained the cars on set. Gregg
received the Evo as a bonus and a contract for the other films
in the franchise and Remy had gotten the opportunity to buy
into the company as shareholder and get the Nissan GT-R
from the film as a bonus. The other cars from the film were
sold off or bought by the actors.

But apparently all that looked like nothing more than

playing  around  with  cars  and  stuff  to  his  family.  His  mother
had even gone so far as to demand he go out and get a real
job.  After  that,  it  shouldn’t  be  a  surprise  that  he'd  never
actually invited his mother to his house.

Now that he was a shareholder in the company and they

were getting steady requests for jobs on film sets, they were
raking it in. He didn’t expect it would last, though, so he
was investing his money wisely. Everything had a shelf life
in Hollywood and fast cars wouldn’t be any different.

SA Welsh

Remy only allowed himself a few luxuries, like his seven

bedroom  house  with  a  pool,  cinema  room  and  an
underground  garage  for  all  the  tinkering  and  custom  car
building  he  did  on  the  side.  Okay,  he  might  have  gone  a
little  overboard  there.  He  also  had  purchased  several  acres
of forestry land that the city had declassified from parklands
when the city redrew their boundaries. He hoped his insider
information  was  right  and  the  city  was  going  to  be
downsizing the parkland and putting it up for sale again so
he could buy more.

It wasn’t like he was cheating, he was just utilizing his

contacts. Knowing a city official who liked fast cars to go
with his fast women came in handy.

But the icing on his sucky cake day was the fact that his

on-again,  off-again  lover  had  texted  him  to  break  up.
Apparently,  he  wasn’t  paying  the  twink  enough  attention,
which was probably because he'd been too busy to break up
with  the  guy.  He'd  known  it  was  coming  and  he  wasn’t
exactly  broken  up  about  it,  but  damn…by  text.  That  was
cold.

And now? Now he'd been summoned to the alpha's

house for some reason. He really hated that guy. Trevor was
pompous, patronizing and cruel. Sadly, the bastard was also
a pretty decent fighter, and had beaten everyone who'd
challenged him so badly that no one wanted to risk it. And
Trevor's wolf was huge.

There were also a few rumors that Trevor had killed his

last  pack  and  the  wolf  shifter  council  hadn’t  had  enough
evidence  to  charge  him  with  anything  because  the  Alpha
wolf had killed every possible witness.

So it really wasn’t high on his to do list to visit the alpha.
However, he'd been summoned, so he had no choice but

to go. The last shifter he knew of who’d refused to jump
when the alpha said jump had disappeared soon after.

Blind Under the Moon

His phone rang just as he pulled up outside the alpha

house.  It  was  larger  than  his  house,  flashier,  and  looked
more  like  it  should  be  on  the  front  of  Cribs  and  Bitches
magazine  instead  of  a  pack  leader.  Trevor  had  been  very
demanding about what he wanted for an Alpha house after
he challenged, beat and exiled the old alpha.

He glanced at the screen and sighed.
"Hi, Mom."
"Remy, Sara just said she saw you heading up to the

Alpha house. What's wrong? Are you in trouble? Are you
okay?"

"Mom, I'm fine. I haven’t done anything that Trevor can

have a fit over," he said, tiredly rubbing a hand over his
head. His dark reddish brown hair was pulled back in a
ponytail as he wore it in work.

"You need to be careful, honey. At the last mandatory

pack run, I saw him watching you. He didn’t do anything so
I didn’t mention it, but please be careful," his mother
begged, sounding worried.

Remy hadn’t noticed that. Maybe he needed to be more

on guard. Perhaps Trevor had noticed his wolf getting
bigger, too. "Okay. Thanks, Mom."

His mother wasn’t the most affectionate, nor was she the

most accepting of the fact he preferred men over women, but
she did love him. That was one of the few things he was
certain about.

"Ring me as soon as you get out of there. If I don’t hear

from you in an hour, then I—"

"You'll do nothing. I don’t want you or Hank getting

dragged into whatever Alpha Trevor has planned. Promise
me," he insisted. His stepfather was a good guy and a good
wolf, he just wasn’t very dominant and would be no help
against Trevor and his Betas.

"Remington—"

SA Welsh

"Promise me," He interrupted.
His mother sighed, then finally agreed. "Fine. But you

better call me, pup, or there'll be hell to pay."

"Love you too, Mom," he returned before ending the call.
Remy's heart was beating faster and his wolf was edgy,

but  he  swallowed  the  fear  before  it  could  take  hold  and
buried  it.  He  couldn't  afford  to  be  showing  any  signs  of
weakness.

Shoving his phone back into his pocket, he got out of his

car and locked it before putting the keys in his pocket as
well.

He slowly made his way up the long walk to the Alpha

house. Remy tried not to feel like he was walking into the
belly of the beast when Betas Sean and Sam opened the door
before he could knock...he started to get a really bad feeling
in the pit of his stomach. This wasn’t a good sign.

"Remington Lupe, we've been expecting you. The alpha

has a small matter he wishes to discuss with you," Sean, the
smaller and meaner of the two large men, said in a toneless
voice.

Sam stepped back so Remy could enter. The sound of the

door being shut and locked behind him did nothing to help
his  nerves.  This  wasn’t  going  to  be  a  good  visit.  He  just
hoped  he  could  walk  away  after,  or  he  had  no  doubt  his
mother would be rounding up his brothers and sisters from
where they lived in other parts of the country and get them
all into trouble.

His mother and father hadn’t been mates, but had

married  for  love  nonetheless  and  had  two  litters  of  three
pups each. Remy was the only single birth and the last pup
to be born before his father died on assignment for the wolf
council  barely  a  year  later.  His  mother  had then  met  Hank
when  Remy  was  about  fourteen  and  discovered  they  were
mates.  It  hadn’t  been  an  easy  time  for  any  of  them,  but  he

Blind Under the Moon

couldn’t deny  that  Hank  and his mother fit together. Hank
was  the  only  person  he  could  ever  see  putting  up  with  his
mother.

Sam took up the position in front of him, leading the way

to wherever the alpha wanted them to go while Sean took
the rear. He got the feeling the Betas were waiting for him to
try to run. They were probably even silently wanting him to
so they would have the excuse to beat the hell out of him.

And Remy would be damned before he'd give them the

satisfaction.

"In there," Sam ordered, pointing to an open door.
Just like with the front door, as soon as he stepped inside,

the  door  slammed  shut  and  locked  behind  him.  This  room
was large and dark and had a smoky smell to it that stung
his  nose.  It  was  traditional  to  have  the  scented  wood  and
herbs  burning  at  pack  gatherings,  but  inside  an  enclosed
space  didn’t  seem  natural.  It  was  like  someone  wanted  to
cover the scent of something in the room.

There were not any lights on in the room and it was

almost pitch black. The heavy curtains over the large
windows must have been drawn, too. It was eerie, and Remy
started to get an idea as to why he was here. It was a test.
And he doubted Trevor was going giving out grades at the
end of it.

"Ahhh, so glad you could join us, Remington," Alpha

Trevor announced, drawing Remy's attention to the right of
him just before the alpha turned on a dull light. It was dim,
but  it  was  enough to see  his  alpha  standing  there,  shirtless
and  sweating  like  he  had  shifted  recently.  Alpha  Trevor’s
eyes  were  wild  and  amber,  like  he  was  on  the  brink  of
shifting again.

Remy cringed when he spotted the large dark brown

smudges on his alpha's torso. Blood…A lot of blood.

SA Welsh

Because of the smoke he couldn’t tell who or what it

belonged to. But judging by the crazy light in Alpha Trevor's
eyes, he was about to find out.

Choosing to err on the side of caution, Remy dropped his

gaze and bowed slightly. "Of course I came when my alpha
summoned me."

"You're always so polite, Remington," Alpha Trevor

responded. Despite the words, the wolf shifter made it
sound like a complaint.

"I have brought you here to do your duty to my pack. You

will prove your loyalty to me, or I will kill your family and
banish you so that you may live with the knowledge that
you chose their deaths." The Alpha threatened the murder of
his family as one might comment on the weather.

His wolf bucked at the reins inside him, wanting to attack

the Alpha just for daring to threaten what was his. He was
twenty-six and still far below the age where he would fully
mature,  as  shifters  lived  anywhere  from  between  four
hundred  and  five  hundred  years,  and  aged  much  slower
than humans.

"I will of course do my duty to you Alpha. There is no

need to threaten," Remy said carefully, trying to hold back
his true feelings of hatred and anger.

Alpha Trevor laughed maniacally. "I don’t threaten, I

promise.  My  Betas  discovered  a  trespasser  on  my  land,  a
vampire.  I've  questioned  him,  but  the  little  faggot  has  not
given  me  anything.  And  since  you  are  of  the  same
perversion—oops  persuasion—I  thought  you  could  break
him to get the answers I want." By the end of the sentence,
Alpha Trevor was grinning wildly and licking his lips like a
rabid dog foaming at the mouth at the prospect of a steak.

Remy didn’t need a diagram to figure out how Alpha

Trevor wanted him to break whatever poor soul the mad
Alpha had captured.

Blind Under the Moon

Alpha Trevor clapped his hands and the room was

suddenly  flooded  with  light  so  bright  it  was  blinding.
Remy's  eyes  screamed  at  the  abrupt  change.  Blinking  and
resisting  the  urge  to  rub  at  his  sore  eyes,  Remy  saw  that
behind  Alpha  Trevor  there  was  a  man  chained  down  on
table, covered in blood.

It looked like a scene from a horror movie.
And Remy's feet were rooted to the floor when Alpha

Trevor stepped aside and waved for him to step forward. He
couldn’t  move.  The  person  on  the  table  was  clearly  male,
and  his  clothes  were  ripped  open  and  hanging  off  of  the
table.

The man's hands were chained above his head and his

face was covered in blood.

"What…what did you do?"
"I taught him not to wander into my territory. The Sica

woods," Alpha Trevor said.

"But the Sica woods aren’t part of pack property," Remy

said before he could think better of it. It was actually part of
the land he was hoping to buy from the state.

Alpha Trevor jumped forward and smacked Remy full in

the face and he felt his nose snap. The bone would heal in a
few hours or when he shifted, but that didn’t stop the pain
smashing through his skull. "Everything is mine! And you
will do as you are told or I will carry out my promise in
front of your eyes. Or are you challenging me?"

"No, Alpha," he said quickly, dropping his gaze to the

floor while trying to think of a way out of this.

"Good. Then do as I said and break the dirty vampire."
Remy walked slowly over to the vampire in chains and

looked at what had already been done to him. The blood
covering the man's face steamed from his eyes. Alpha Trevor
had blinded the vampire, and by the looks of it had torn out
his fangs, as well. The vampire must have heard or smelled

SA Welsh

him  getting  closer  because  he  went  from  being  limp  and
quiet  to  screaming  and  struggling  furiously  against  the
chains.

"I cannot," he whispered. There was no way he was ever

going contribute to this evil.

"Break him, rape him and torture him until he tells me

what he knows. I order you as your Alpha…are you denying
a  direct  order  from  your  Alpha?"  Alpha  Trevor's  voce
dropped dangerously low, carrying the weight of the Alpha
tone  that  would  make  sure  Remy  did  whatever  the  man
ordered  whether  he  wanted  to  or  not.  He  would  have  no
choice but to do the monster's bidding.

A hard, quick knock on the door saved him from having

to answer.

But the sly smile blooming on the Alpha's face told him it

wasn’t anything he was going to like on the other side.

"Enter," Alpha Trevor barked.
The door opened to reveal Mervin and Valmer, the two

enforcers, each holding someone with a sack over their head.
They didn’t even step into the room, just threw the people
they were holding inside and shut the door again, locking it
with a harsh snick.

"The last party guests have arrived."
The people on the floor carefully got to their feet and

slowly  tore  off  the  sack  from  over  their  head.  Remy  knew
even  before  he  saw  their  faces  who  they  were—his  mother
and  Hank.  They  had  tape  over  their  mouths,  but  as  they
reached up to remove it Alpha Trevor growled fiercely.

His mother's eyes widened, and to his credit, Hank

stepped forward and in front of his mother, shielding her
from the more dominant wolf and not backing down.

"Why are they here?" He had to talk louder to be heard

over the screaming vampire. As heartless as it sounded,
Remy knew he had to tune the vampire out and focus.

Blind Under the Moon

"To make sure you do as you are told."
Remy tried edging over to his mother and stepfather, but

Alpha  Trevor's  gaze  narrowed  on  him,  and  he  saw  the
Alpha's  teeth  had  elongated  and  sharpened  into  deadly
canines.

"Do you know there are three things that identify an

Alpha before they mature?"

Remy froze. His wolf stilled, too.
His mother shrieked behind the tape and tried to get out

from behind Hank, but his stepfather stood firm, not letting
her get around him to face the crazy Alpha.

"No," he answered shakily.
"They are always born in a single birth, they can shift with

amazing speed and the last thing, the most important thing.
They are immune to other Alphas’ dominance," Alpha
Trevor snarled, advancing towards his mother.

"Don't!" Remy didn’t know what the hell to make out of

everything the Alpha had said. Okay, sure, he ticked the first
two  boxes  since  he  was  born  without  littermates  and  his
shift  had  been  coming  faster  and  easier  every  time  he  ran
with the pack. But the last one was stopping him cold.

No one could refuse an Alpha's order. But a few minutes

ago,  Trevor  had  given  him  an  order  and  he  hadn’t  felt
compelled to carry out the terrible acts against the vampire.
Remy had expected to be forced into doing things he didn’t
want  to,  but  if  he  looked  back  and  analyzed  his  feelings
there had been nothing  inside his head  but fear and anger.
The Alpha voice hadn’t affected him.

Holy fucking shit on a stick.
Alpha Trevor spun around and screamed in his face

before heading towards his mother again. Remy didn’t even
think before he grabbed the Alpha's arm.

"Remember my promise, pup," Alpha Trevor spat,

wrenching free of Remy's hold.

SA Welsh

He looked over to his mother—her eyes were wide and

panicked.

Had she known? Was it true—what Alpha Trevor said? It

couldn’t be, though. He wasn’t an Alpha. Remy would know
if he was an Alpha.

Sure, his wolf had been getting a bit more dominant over

the last few months, especially around the full moon, but it
couldn’t  be  because  he  was  an  Alpha.  Shifters  weren’t
controlled by the moon as portrayed in popular stories, but
they  were  still  children  of  the  moon,  so  they  had  a  certain
reverence  for  the  silver  circle  it  he  sky.  And  their  animals
were much closer to the surface, too.

He'd started shifting faster and faster when he wanted to

run as a wolf, his change slipping over him like another skin
in mere seconds compared to the minutes it took other
shifters.

Alpha.
He rolled the word in his mind, tasting it. Remy was a

leader, people in the garage looked up to him and he tried to
look after his family and friends as best he could. But did
that mean he was an Alpha, or just that he had some leader
personality traits?

"Alpha Trevor, please…"
"No. The time for talking in over. You refused my order to

break the vampire and now your family will pay the price. I
think I'll start with your bitch of a mother. I always did fancy
having a go on that ass.” Alpha Trevor growled, leering at
his mother. "Betas!"

Immediately the betas and enforcers filed into the room.

The enforcers grabbed Hank, dragging him away from his
mother. Sam and Sean marched up to him, eyeing Remy
with gleeful expressions. "We've been promised your head,
fagwolf."

Blind Under the Moon

Remy only spared them a glance as Alpha Trevor stormed

over to his mother and grabbed her by the hair, throwing her
to the floor and following her down.

His wolf bucked at his control and he growled. "Don’t.

Touch.  My.  Mother."  His  voice  was  deadly  quiet  and  even
the Betas hesitated before they came any closer, but only for
a  second.  Sean  took  a  swing  at  him,  the  punch  connecting
with  his  jaw,  while  Sam  kicked  him  in  the  stomach.  The
blows felled him and he collapsed to his knees as his vision
blacked  out  for  a  few  seconds.  The  Betas  continued  hitting
him, stopping him from getting up when he tried.

Valmer came over to join in the beating, striking him with

the force of a freight train. They were betas and enforcers for
a reason. And they were damn strong motherfuckers. The
strength of a kick to his ribs lifted him off the floor.

"Urgh!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood onto the beige carpet and

tried to catch his breath. His wolf was desperate to get out.
But if he shifted, then there was no hope of this being
resolved without severe bloodshed and or death.

"You think you're so special, strutting around in your

pansy car. You're nothing.” Sean spat, blowing putrid breath
in his face.

Remy took advantage of the break in between hits and

tried to jump to his feet, but he didn’t get as far as standing
straight before Sam's fist smashed into his gut. It sent him
crashing back to the floor with a grunt, clutching his
stomach.

He could hear the vampire struggling in the chains. And

he  could  hear  Hank's  mumbled  shouting  behind  the  taped
mouth.  But  the  sound  that  tore  through  him  was  his
mother's cry—she sounded scared and hurt.

With every breath, his body ached, but he dragged

himself around so he could see his mother. She lay on the

SA Welsh

floor on her back with her hands held down at her sides as
Alpha Trevor leaned over her and licked her face, laughing
as she tried to fight him.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Remy let

every bit of wildness within him free.

Remy didn’t remember exactly what came next—he only

felt anger, fury and moon madness. For the first time in his
life, he gave himself over to the wolf. He didn’t initiate a full
shift, but held the change halfway, becoming something not
human  or  wolf,  but  a  monster  in  between.  His  ripped  and
busted shirt and jeans fell away from his body as he panted
in  effort,  leaving  him  standing  there  in  a  pair  of
overstretched black boxer shorts.

That was something else only Alpha's were supposed to

be able to do. Only Alphas had a third shifted form.

But he was beyond that kind of higher thought. The only

thing that drove him was the thirst for the blood of his
enemy. Remy stood up, knocking the Beta trying to strangle
him from behind off his back as if the shifter were nothing
more than an annoying bug. Sean lunged to deliver another
blow. But Remy just caught the flying fist in his now much
larger and clawed hand, holding it still.

Tilting his head to the side, he looked at the Beta. Sean

had always been taller than his six foot height by a good six
inches, but now the Beta was at least seven inches smaller
than him.

It felt strange. Remy spared the Beta only a second's more

attention before throwing him to the side and hitting Valmer
in the face when the enforcer tried to bite him. The hit
knocked the enforcer out and he grinned, showing his newly
lengthened and sharpened teeth. Sam was the only beta left
standing and after seeing Remy grin, he backed down and
ran out of the room. Remy sent a look in Mervin's direction

Blind Under the Moon

and the beta paled and dropped Hank before following after
Sam.

A muffled scream reminded him of his purpose and he

turned to see Alpha Trevor terrorizing his mother,
apparently not noticing that his betas would be of no further
use.

Stalking forward, Remy realized his legs were bent at a

weird angle, a mix between a wolf and a human. But they
felt strong, his muscles powerful and ready.

He fisted his hand in the alpha's hair, lifted the man off

his mother, and threw Trevor into the air where he, quick as
a flash, struck out multiple times with his claws, damaging
the man as much as possible before Alpha Trevor got free
and faced off against him.

Alpha Trevor's face contorted as the man roared in

outrage at being challenged and denied his sadistic pleasure.
Remy  carefully  reached  out  to  his  mother,  mindful  of  his
claws  and  keeping  a watchful  eye  on  the  dangerous  Alpha
several  feet  away.  Alpha  Trevor  seemed  to  be  considering
his options, weighing the risk of attacking now that he saw
his Betas were either unconscious or had deserted him.

His mother grasped his hand and he easily pulled her up

and  gently  pushed  her  in  Hank's  direction.  He  kept  them
behind him as he edged to the other side of the room. Hank
and  his  mother  moved  when  he  moved,  stepping  carefully
until  Alpha  Trevor  was  forced  to  either  move  or  be  right
next to them. The Alpha chose to move. A couple more steps
and his mother and stepfather were behind the table where
the vampire was silently trying to get free of the chains and
cuffs keeping him captive and helpless.

"You are nothing. You are not Alpha here. I am!"
As he watched, Alpha Trevor's brow thickened and

deepened and a muzzle grew out from the contorting face.
Trevor was shifting, but after a blurry painful

SA Welsh

transformation where the Alpha grew and sprouted far
more fur than Remy, Remy realized Trevor couldn’t suspend
the shift like he could.

But Remy didn’t have enough time to think of a reason

why that could be before the Alpha leaped at him. Remy
attacked too, and the pair of them collided in mid-air. Their
two large heavy bodies clashed together with a thud.

Trevor slashed out at him, catching him in the side and

face  before  he  had  a  chance  to  block  the  blows  and  it
reminded  Remy  of  how  Trevor  became  Alpha  in  the  first
place.  Trevor  was  a  formidable  fighter.  Remy  had  never
been in a fight, bar a few scuffles when he was a cocky teen
going through his first shift.

But his wolf was confident and quiet, waiting for an

opportunity to strike a killing blow. Remy twisted away
from more slashing swipes, ducking where he could to
dodge a few headshots, but a number of body punches and
jabs still connected.

The hits hurt, and his wolf shook the pain off to keep

watching for its moment to strike. Remy only needed one
opening, but Trevor wasn’t going to give one willingly.

He braced when another barrage of punches, swipes, jabs

and  slashes  came  his  way  as  Trevor  renewed  the  attack,
driving him backwards. When he felt that they were getting
too  close  to the  table  and  his  mother  and  stepfather,  Remy
bent  at  the  waist  and  drove  his  shoulder  into  Trevor's
stomach, forcing the Alpha back—away from his parents.

But it also left him open for Alpha Trevor to bite into his

back,  and  the  shifter's  teeth  tore  lumps  of  flesh  out  of  his
hide.  The  pain  made  him  howl,  but  he  kept  moving  until
Trevor's back slammed into the far wall. His wounds oozed
blood  and  Remy  could  feel  the  hot  sticky  liquid  trickling
down his body.

Blind Under the Moon

His wolf surged forward again, taking control, and

snapped at Alpha Trevor, just missing the shifter's throat by
an inch as the man yanked out of his hold and raked sharp
knife-like claws down his face. The agony was almost
enough to send him running. But he pushed it aside.

Remy forced himself to take a few deep breaths and

winced at the pain, but didn’t taking his eyes off Trevor as
they circled each other. "Fighting a real alpha too much for
you, pup?" Trevor spat the words at him. But Remy heard
the wheeze the shifter tried to hide with a snarl.

"You do an awful lot of talking in fight," Remy pointed

out, trying to come across as calm and confident as his wolf
was. His relationship with his wolf was strong and it had
always felt like there was something he was missing. But he
still didn’t believe he was an Alpha. Shouldn’t he have
known if he was?

Alpha Trevor advanced further into the shift, becoming

more  wolf  than  man  or  half  in  between.  But  the  Alpha
charged him again anyway. Remy smacked back, but didn’t
put a lot of power into his right side, using his injured side
to try to draw Trevor into making a mistake. Arrogance and
hubris was probably the only way he was going to win this.
While  Trevor  was  focusing  on  his  right  side  and
concentrating the attack to pummel his right side, he slowly
forced the claws on his left hand to grow even longer.

Trevor landed a particularly hard blow, forcing the air

from his lungs and making him stumble. God, he was being
beaten to a pulp here.

The other shifter pressed his advantage and repeated the

blow  and  followed  it  up  by  throwing  his  weight  into  a
punch  to  the  face.  It  was  what  Remy  had  been  waiting  for
and  his  wolf  urged  him  on  to  strike.  Remy  sidestepped
Trevor's  hit  and  delivered  one  of  his  own.  Putting
everything he had left into the hit, he struck true, ramming

SA Welsh

his claws deep inside the Alpha's chest. His elongated claws
penetrated right through the man's chest, protruding
through the skin of Trevor's back like a scene from Wolverine.

But it was effective. He pulled his claws from Trevor's

body  and  the  Alpha  fell  to  the  floor  with  a  wet  thump,  as
blood  pumped  freely  from  the  five  through-and-through
punctures. While Remy stared at the growing pool of blood
and the drops of crimson dripping from his claws, he missed
Trevor's body shuddering and completing the change to full
wolf.

"Watch out!"
His mother's shout was the only thing that saved him

from  Trevor's  wolf  tearing  his  face  off.  Trevor  missed  his
mark  when  Remy  ducked  and  rolled  across  the  floor  and
into the wall, before gaining his feet and running out of the
room,  closely  followed  by  Sean  and  Valmer  who  had
apparently regained consciousness.

Blind Under the Moon

Chapter Two

emy stood there, staring at the open door.
Everyone was quiet, even the wounded vampire.

Suddenly everything erupted into chaos as a dozen

people  from  the  pack  rushed  in,  looking  ready  for  a  fight.
His wolf was instantly on guard and he threw back his head
and howled. It was instinctive and as he finished he looked
at  the  newcomers.  It  only  took  them  three  seconds  before
they dropped to their knees and howled back.

When the wolf song ended, more shifters ran into the

room, looking as though they had dropped whatever they
were doing and come running. They probably had. When an
Alpha called, you listened.

He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now and his

wolf was unusually quiet. Everyone in the room was staring
at him expectantly so he waved a hand gesturing for people
to get up. He spotted his best friend, Rylan, kneeling near
the front with wide eyes, and discreetly mouthed help.

Rylan slowly got to his feet and stepped forward,

carefully  dropping  his  gaze  and  keeping  his  head  tilted  to
the side to bare his neck. "You defeated Trevor and his inner
circle  single-handed  and  proved  you  are  Alpha  here.  We
show  you  respect  and  pledge  our  loyalty,"  his  best  friend
said  formally,  as  if  he  were  reading  from  a  script.  What
the—

Alpha.
Not this again.

SA Welsh

"I…I…"
Rylan straightened and spoke slower to emphasize the

point. "Alpha, how may we serve you? Do you wish to name
your Betas now?"

Right. Okay. He could work with this, then freak out

later.  He  was  suddenly  aware  he  was  still  standing  there
with canine teeth and sharpened claws, standing seven feet
tall. His wolf receded, letting him revert to his fully human
form,  and  he  coughed  to  clear  the  nervous  lump  in  his
throat.  He  tried  to remember  what  he'd  read  about  Alphas
taking over packs in the shifter history books he'd found in
his father's belongings.

"Thank you. I...uh…I'd prefer to name my inner circle

later. For now all I wish is for Alp—Trevor and his Betas to
be followed and make sure they leave my lands. Rylan, take
seven  men  of  your  choice  with  you  and  chase  after  them,
keep a safe distance, and report to me when they cross the
borders. The rest of you I would like you to pass along word
that  Trevor  is  gone  and  things  will  be  changing.  I  expect
everyone  in  the  pack to  attend  a  pack  run  three  days  from
now."  Remy  nodded  firmly  at  the  end  of  his  speech  and
waited for everyone to leave.

A man Remy didn’t recognize stepped forward and

glanced behind Remy to the where the vampire was lying
quietly and silently still on the table. "What will happen to
that?"

He pretended like he was thinking it over, then looked

the man in the eye until the shifter dropped his gaze and
fidgeted. "I will deal with him. Leave," he added firmly
when the man looked like he was going to linger.

Rylan chose the men to go with him and left, giving Remy

a look of caution. His best friend seemed wary as to how to
act around him.

Blind Under the Moon

He'd rather not have to send Rylan away right then, but

he  was  the  only  person  Remy  trusted  implicitly  until  he
could  weed  out  the  poisonous  roots  of  people  who
supported the violent way Trevor had led the pack.

Everyone filed out, already gossiping and chatting when

they thought he couldn’t hear them. They all seemed
shocked he was an Alpha. And he totally agreed with them.
"Believe me, no one is as surprised as me," he whispered to
himself.

The doors shut. Once he was sure there were no one left

but  this  parents  and  the  vampire,  he  turned  and  limped
towards  the  wood-burning  fire  in  the  center  of  the  overly
large  and  dramatic  fireplace,  with  carvings  of  wolves
running  through  the  snow  embedded  into  the  marble  and
wood. He grabbed the cover and smothered the fire, putting
it  out  quickly  without  fuss.  With  the  fire  out,  he  would  be
better able to detect the scent of anyone sneaking back in or
trying to eavesdrop.

He really hated this house. Even the walls were painted a

cold, sinister shade of grey. He couldn’t wait to get out of
here. It made his skin crawl.

"Honey? Are you okay?"
Hearing his mother approach him slowly and sounding

wary was something of a shock. "I'm fine—I healed from
almost everything when I shifted, and the busted ribs and
slashes will be gone after a few more quick shifts when I'm
home later."

Turning back to his parents, Remy remembered Trevor

had hurt his mother when the shifter had had her pinned to
the floor. He rushed over to her, running his hands over her
face,  then  over  her  wrists,  growling  when  he  saw  the
bloodied scratches marring  her skin. He wished he'd killed
the bastard. If he was fast enough, he might be able to catch
up with Trevor and finish the job he'd started.

SA Welsh

His mother shushed him and smacked his hands as he

tried to rub one of the bruises on her face. "Get off me,
Remington. You are the one I'm worried about. Do you
understand what you just did?"

So they were back to that were they?
"No, mother. I have no idea what just happened, except

that  basically  all  my  plans  for  a  boring  uneventful  and
relaxing  week  were  just  kissed  goodbye,"  he  snapped.  A
small  part  of  him  was  pleased  when  she  winced.  She  had
evidently known or at least suspected something was wrong
with him, since she hadn’t seemed surprised about Trevor's
accusations. And she'd kept it from him.

His mother became flustered, hands waving about

animatedly as she spoke. "You have to understand, Remy.
Your father knew you would likely be an Alpha, since you
were a single birth and you shifted into the most adorable
little puppy the second week after you were born for a few
days. We hid it because we wanted you to grow up without
any expectations or pressure placed on you. And after your
father passed, I thought it was easier to stick to the plan."

"Easier for whom?" The bad thing was he could see her

point. Alphas were normally spotted in childhood and
trained to be only one thing. Alpha. Remy wouldn’t be who
he was now if he'd known. But he still had a right to have
been to have been told the truth about himself. "Is this why
you can't accept the fact that I'm gay and keep pushing
females at me at every turn?"

His mother didn't answer, but then she didn’t have to as

the look on her face said it all. She had kept this all a secret
and tried to manipulate him into taking a false mate to have
pups and take over the pack that way. It was all suddenly so
clear.

Everyone knew a dominant wolf became more aggressive

and protective of their mate and that Trevor would more

Blind Under the Moon

than likely do something like come onto his mate, which
would ignite his anger so that he'd challenge the man. It was
like a never-ending web of lies and manipulation.

Remy looked at Hank, who was being unusually quiet.

"Why didn’t you say anything to me? I know we may not be
as close as father and son, but I've thought of you as a good
stepfather over the years." A bit of the hurt he felt slipped
into his tone.

Hank sent him a look Remy couldn’t quite decipher. "I do

think of you as my son. And I would have told you…If I had
known myself," the man answered, drawing out the pause in
the middle. He guessed he wasn’t the only one his mother
was keeping secrets from.

"Hank, honey?"
His mother tried to reach out, but her mate stepped back

and  turned  away.  "I'll  go  and  call  the  kids.  They'll  want  to
know  what's  happened."  With  that,  his  stepfather  turned
and walked out of the room.

"Hank?"
Remy wanted to reassure her, to comfort her, but right

now, he didn’t have it in him. If he'd known, he could have
been prepared and better hidden the Alpha aspects of
himself from others, especially Trevor and the Betas. Maybe
all this could have been avoided if he'd known what the hell
he was doing—he wasn’t naïve enough to seriously believe
this was over because he'd beaten Trevor in a fight.

The older shifter was a seasoned fighter and Remy had

gotten lucky. The old alpha wasn’t simply going to move on.
Trevor was going to come back for revenge. It was just a
question of when and how. Remy had made a dangerous
enemy tonight.

"You better go after Hank," he said.

SA Welsh

His mother glared at him with tears in her eyes. "I did

what I thought was best and I stand by that," she announced
stubbornly, lifting her chin in defiance.

It wasn’t surprising. He got his own stubbornness from

her. "Then you need to accept the consequences as well."
There was nothing more to say on the subject after that.

A clink of metal chains drew his attention back to the

vampire  he  had,  admittedly,  forgotten.  "I  can't  spend
another  minute  here.  I'm  taking  the  vampire  to  my  place.
Give  Rylan  the  message  to  meet  me  there  and  report."  It
wasn’t an order so much as a request, but he didn’t give her
a  chance  to  refuse  before  he  turned  his  back  on  her  and
strode over to the table that held the vampire.

A door slamming was his only answer, then he was alone

with the vampire.

As he stepped up to the table, he assessed the damage to

the vampire. It looked like Trevor had tried to scratch out his
eyes, and the bloody mess of his mouth and the absence of
fangs told Remy the vampire had endured a great deal pain.
Other bruises and wounds were undoubtedly the
handiwork of Trevor or one of the man’s betas.

The scent smoke had cleared from the room enough that

he could scent the vampire's blood and fear. On a base level,
it spoke to his predator within, but the strange need to care
for the heavily injured male was almost irresistible now that
he'd gotten good whiff.

The vampire must have heard him coming because the

male renewed his struggle, grunting in pain as he tried to get
away from Remy. "Hush. It's me—I'm Remy and I'm not
going to hurt you, I'm only trying to help."

He must have understood Remy's word because the

struggles stopped. But the vampire whimpered when Remy
undid the chains and lowered the man's arms to his side. He
removed the chains at the bottom of the table too, then went

Blind Under the Moon

back to stand by the vampire’s side. "I'm going to take you to
my place, where I can clean you up. Now I'm not going to
lie—this is probably going to hurt like hell."

The easiest way to carry the vampire without aggravating

his  injuries  too  much  would  probably  be  to  carry  the  man
with all the weight on his arms, outstretched from his body
to  minimize  any  swaying  or  bobbing  as  he  walked.  It
wouldn't  be  the  most  comfortable  for  either  of  them,  since
his  back  wounds  and  ribs  hadn’t  completely  healed.  But  it
would get them out of this godforsaken house. Hopefully no
one  would  pull  him  over  on  the  drive  back  home,  because
Remy had absolutely no  fucking clue how he was going to
explain away two mostly naked men covered in blood to the
human police.

"Wait! The sun.” The vampire's words were slurred, but

Remy understood them.

"Isn't that a myth?" He'd thought stuff like vampires'

aversion to sunlight, garlic, crosses holy water and all that
other crap was just that—crap.

"Will hurt…burn."
Okay, then. He looked around the room and didn’t find

anything he could use as a suitable cover for the vampire so
he just walked over to the large hanging tapestry depicting a
pack  of  wolves  bowing  to  a  king  and  snatched  down  the
curtain  rail  holding  it  up,  ripping  the  no  doubt  expensive
tapestry.

Remy wrapped the vampire up in the fabric as gently as

he could. When the entire vampire was covered, he left only
long enough to find his jeans and extract his wallet and keys.
"I'm going to pick you up now," he warned as he carefully
slid his arms under the vampire's body and lifted.

A muffled shout came through the fabric and Remy

flinched. He didn’t want to cause the vampire any more
pain, but they both needed to get out of here. Remy had a

SA Welsh

feeling  there  would  be  pack  members  hunting  him  down
soon to pledge their loyalty and try to pick up some gossip.
But he really wasn’t in the mood to feed the rumor mill right
now. So his plan was to get himself and the vampire home,
clean them up, and sleep until he figured out what the hell
to do  about all this alpha stuff. He'd hit the books and call
his  older  brothers.  Micah  and  Asher  would  know  what  to
do—his  brothers  were  both  betas  for  other  packs  up  west
and  had  been  for  a  good  few  years,  so  they  should  know
how a pack was run from the inside.

He got them to the car without issue. As lightly as he

could, he placed the tapestry-wrapped vampire down in the
passenger seat, pushing the seat back and reclining it before
fastening the seatbelt. Quickly going around the car and
getting in the driver's side, he pressed the ignition button
and sped out of the drive.

He made the half hour drive home in fifteen minutes.

There were only a few cars on the road, allowing him to
push the speed limits more than a little.

As soon as he pulled up to his white stone house, he

began to calm down. The columns around the porch were a
bit much, but he'd fallen in love with the stone architecture
and high ceilings. Remy got them both inside and upstairs to
his  bedroom  before  rushing  into  the  connected  bathroom
and  grabbing  all  the  medical  supplies  he  could  find.  As  a
shifter,  he  rarely  needed  anything  like  bandages  and
antiseptic—nevertheless  he  kept  a  stock  in  case  of
emergencies.  He  just  hoped  they  were  all  in  date.  A  quick
check confirmed they were.

Pealing the fabric away from the vampire proved a little

more difficult than he'd bargained for, seeing as the
vampire's blood had dried and stuck the tapestry fast to his
skin.

Blind Under the Moon

"Rip." The word was quiet, but firm, and Remy wasn’t

sure what the vampire wanted him to do.

"I'm trying to get the butt ugly tapestry off of you, but the

blood  is  making  it  harder,"  he  said,  trying  to  explain.  He
couldn’t imagine it was pleasant  feeling  for the man under
the curtain.

"Rip…off," the voice repeated, sounding fainter and tired.

Remy had no idea how fast vampires healed, but he guessed
that  significant  blood  loss  wasn’t  conducive  to  being  a
healthy  vampire.  But  Remy  understood  what  the  vampire
meant now, he just wasn’t sure he should listen.

On the one hand, he could waste a lot of time trying to get

the tapestry away from the vampire's abused skin carefully
and reduce any further injury. However, on the other hand
he could rip it off fast like a Band-Aid and see to the man's
wounds quicker.

Decision made, Remy got a good grip on the fabric with

both  hands  and  gave  one  quick,  sharp  tug—effectively
separating the material from the vampire's body. "Sorry. I'm
so  sorry,"  he  repeated,  dropping  the  discarded  fabric  and
rushing  to  try  to  soothe  the  crying  vampire.  The  vampire
quieted  and  lay  there  still,  eyes  closed  and  waiting  for
whatever came next.

Remy wasn’t stupid enough to think the vampire trusted

him. In all likelihood, as soon as the vampire healed enough,
the man would either try to attack him or run.

He knelt on the floor next to his bed and rummaged

through the stack of medical supplies until he found the
antibacterial wash spray. It wouldn't be pleasant, but it was
probably best to err on the side of caution and treat the
wounds like he would a human's until he knew more about
how vampires healed and whether they were vulnerable to
infections and such.

SA Welsh

"I'm going to clean your eyes first," he warned, gently

pumping  the  mist  bottle  over  the  vampire's  face.  He  kept
doing  that  until  the  bottle  was  half-empty  and  the  dried
blood started to run away, leaving three nasty looking claw
marks cutting across each eyelid. Remy was scared to think
of the damage done.

Through it all the vampire only panted and clenched his

fist  with  the  occasional  cry  or  moan  of  pain.  He  dabbed  a
piece of cotton wool along the gouges, cleaning the vampires
face.  He  wet  another  piece  of  cotton  wool  and  started
cleaning the lower part of the vampire's face, concentrating
around the mouth where Remy could see that the fangs had
been pulled out. Remy had hoped he'd been mistaken when
he saw the vampire's mouth earlier.

"I'm sorry they did this to you," he whispered, continuing

to clean the wounds. With every piece of bloody cotton wool
he disposed of in a pile on the floor, the guilt festered a little
more.  He  couldn’t  help  but  think  this—the  vampire  being
captured and tortured—was just a set up to test him. If he'd
bowed to Trevor's demand as alpha, then he'd be under the
shifter's  thumb  for  life  and  have  become  a  monster.  The
former  alpha  would  more  than  likely  have  attacked  the
vampire  anyway,  but  probably  have  beaten  him  and
dumped  him  at  the  borders.  Instead,  Trevor  had  taken  the
opportunity to test Remy. And he still stood by the opinion
that  if  his  mother  had  told  him,  then  he  could  have  either
hidden  what  he  was  or  been  better  prepared  to  formally
challenge Trevor.

When the vampire raised a hand, Remy didn’t move. If

the vampire wanted to hit him, then he deserved it. But he
was surprised when the vampire just cupped his cheek. The
touch tingled and spread a strange warmth through is body
as the vampire's fingers drifted slowly over his face,
following the lines of his face.

Blind Under the Moon

"Need," the vampire croaked gruffly.
Remy took the vampire's hand in his and leaned closer so

he could hear better. "What do you need?" He felt a need to
give the vampire anything he wanted.

"Blood." That one word stopped his heart for a second

and the vampire must have picked up on his apprehension,
because he pulled back and started to shuffle away from
him.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. Just took me by

surprise, that’s all. I…uh…how do we do this without
your…um fangs?"

His answer must have surprised the vampire, as the man

stopped  trying  to  move  away  and  tilted  his  head  in  a  way
Remy guessed was questioning. Without giving himself any
longer  to  think  about  why  he  and  his  wolf  wanted  to  help
the hurt vampire so much, he let one of his claws grow out—
it  was  getting  easier  to  do  each  time  he  tried—and  cut  his
inner forearm.

Blood instantly welled in the deep cut and he quickly

stood  and  propped  the  vampire  up,  slid  behind  him,  and
lightly  pressed  his  bleeding  arm  to  the  vampire's  mouth.
Immediately the vampire's mouth latched onto his skin and
a sucking pressure began.

A hot wet tongue traced the edge of the cut and the

tingling sensation returned magnified by a thousand.
Apparently, the myth about a vampire's bite wasn’t really a
myth. And this was without fangs. What would it be like to
actually be bitten by the vampire who was leaning back
against him?

Remy was almost certain he wanted to find out.
He sank back against the pillows in attempts to disguise

the fact that his lower body was taking notice of the pleasant
sensations coursing through him with every pull on his vein.
Was he supposed to be getting aroused? Remy liked his men

SA Welsh

slim but toned, and now that he'd cleaned the vampire up,
the male certainly ticked those boxes. The vampire had short
black hair, and under the scent of blood, smelled really nice.
If he'd met the man in a bar or a club, he'd have definitely
approached him.

Remy's wolf rose close to the surface when he took

another deep breath of the vampire's scent. He could smell
leather, like the type used in high-end briefcases, oiled and
looked  after.  But  he  could  also  smell  Trevor  and  the  man's
betas  scent  covering  the  vampire  in  places,  particularly  in
the hair—where they must have held him down.

He couldn’t help the growl that rumbled up from his core.

Just the thought of anyone touching the vampire in his arms
filled him with a deep anger he'd never felt before. How
dare they touch him and hurt him.

Freezing, the vampire made a questioning noise. "I smell

them on you. And my wolf doesn’t like it," he said gruffly,
confused as to why he was feeling this way.

Reaching back, the vampire just put a hand on his thigh

and  squeezed  lightly.  His  wolf  immediately  calmed.  And
that  only  confused  him  more.  Why  would  he  respond  this
way  to  a  vampire?  There  were  stories  that  vampires  could
hypnotize  their  prey,  but  he  remembered  that  eye  contact
seemed an integral part of that, and with the vampire's eyes
still damaged as they were, he didn’t even know what color
the man's eyes were.

Remy wasn’t stupid. He knew cars—any make, model

and type he could take apart and put back together again
blindfolded—and he was good with trucks and motorcycles,
too. He had a head for numbers and liked to read in his
spare time. But all this had really thrown him.

He couldn’t do anything about being alpha for the

moment, but he could try to figure out why he reacted so
strongly to the vampire being hurt and feeding from him.

Blind Under the Moon

His best guess would be that the vampire was his mate,

but a wolf's mate had a certain scent, something irresistible
and while the vampire smelled nice, it didn’t sound like the
mate draw he heard Hank and other mated wolves talk
about.

And thinking about that caused a sharp stab of

disappointment.

Even though his life was pretty much FUBAR right now,

he longed to find that one person he was meant for, that one
person to care for, to love and to rely on. And he didn’t want
to come across as having a one-track mind, but the sex was
supposed to be mind-blowingly phenomenal.

Remy groaned when the vampire started drinking again.

There was no way to hide the growing erection in his shorts
now  so  he  just  tried  to  relax.  The  vampire  didn’t  seem
bothered  by  it,  so  why  should  he?  Because  he  wanted  to
push the vampire flat on his stomach and mark him all over
so he smelled of no other but Remy.

He growled again when the hand on his thigh started to

move, running  higher  up  his  thigh  before retreating.  Remy
couldn’t  watch  the  vampire's  mouth  clamped  on  his  arm
anymore and still keep control of his lust so he let his head
drop  back  against  the  headboard  and  looked  up  at  the
ceiling. Even thinking that the ceiling needed a new coat of
white  pain  didn’t  deflate  his  hard  cock.  This  was  the  most
erotic  thing  he'd  ever  felt  and  done.  To  be  the  one  feeding
the  vampire  and  providing  sustenance.  It  filled  him  with  a
sense of purpose, and he liked being needed that much. He
just wished it had happened under different circumstance.

Closing his eyes, Remy ran the fantasy in his mind.
If he'd picked up the vampire at a club and taken him

home, this would be going a little differently. Remy would
have kissed the man until his lips were red and swollen and
pressed him up against the door, the walls and the stairs as

SA Welsh

they  stumbled  to  get  to  the  bed,  stripping  clothes  as  they
went. They'd make it as far as the bedroom door before the
fever  got  too  much  for  them  and  they  would  fall  to  the
fluffy,  thick  carpet.  The  vampire  would  strike,  sinking  his
fangs  into  Remy's  neck  and  drinking  until  Remy's  body
shuddered with release.

He'd be so excited he'd stay hard, pick the vampire up in

his arms, and throw him onto the bed. They'd bounce on the
mattress and laugh until Remy tackled the vampire and
pinned him to the bed, ravaging him with biting kisses and
rubbing his scent all over the man.

There wouldn’t be any question about who would top

because  they  would  do  everything  before  the  night  was
over.  Remy  would  spread  the  vampire's  legs  wide  and  fill
the gap between them. He'd tease and play until the vampire
begged Remy to take him, then Remy would sink inside that
glorious heat and they'd fuck for hours. They'd go until their
bodies could barely breathe, then collapse into the afterglow
and each other's scent.

The fantasy was so real in his mind Remy had only a

moment's warning before an orgasm crashed through him.
His arms tightened around the vampire, but the man didn’t
seem to mind. The vampire even ground his ass back against
Remy's cock.

He came, thrusting rubbing his dick against the vampire's

back and howling. The urge to mark his partner was
overwhelming and before Remy could reign in his wolf, his
teeth sank into the skin at the back of the vampire's neck as
he continued to move against him.

He felt two pinpricks pierce his arm where the vampire

fed from, then the bite released and he heard the vampire
cry out and smelled the man's own release. He let go of the
vampire's neck and the vampire dropped his arm. Remy was
so sated he started to drift off. The last thing he was aware of

SA Welsh

Chapter Three

emy woke with the mother of all headaches and tried to
remember where the hell he'd gone to get so drunk.

What the hell had he ordered—the whole damn bar?

He dared to crack an eye open and sighed in relief as he

saw he was in his own room. At least he hadn’t gone home
with some weirdo or a cheap hook up. The club scene was
getting old and the last thing he needed with this headache
was to have to deal with a clingy one-night stand and that
whole awkward morning after. Or worse, that his on-again
off-again ex had managed to talk his way back into Remy's
bed.

"Oh good, you're awake," a smooth male voice said from

beside him.

Remy's body froze, then he slowly forced himself to get

up and sit on the edge of the bed. He had no idea who was
in  his  bedroom,  but  the  man  sounded  pleased  that  he  was
up so maybe he'd picked someone up after all. He took stock
of  his  body,  subtly  trying  to  figure  out  exactly  what  he'd
done  with  this  stranger.  His  ass  wasn’t  sore,  so  that  was  a
relief.  Lately  his  wolf  liked  being  dominated  less  and  less.
He'd definitely cum, because he was sticky and proof of his
orgasm was flaking on his stomach.

Lovely. He grimaced as he scratched at a particularly

itchy patch below his bellybutton. Remy tentatively took a
deep breath to try to scent who it was in the room.

Blind Under the Moon

"Should I feel bad you do not remember me after just two

hours, hot stuff?" The man didn’t sound hurt—if anything,
he sounded amused. And something about that pissed Remy
off no end. What gave this stranger the right to make him
feel like a slut in his own home?

Hot stuff?
Spinning around, he growled and went to give the man a

piece of his mind. But he was expecting a twink or someone
with  an  arrogant  smile,  not  the  most  handsome  man  he'd
ever seen. The man was his height, had short black hair that
was  combed  neatly  and  had  a  healthy  shine,  and  was
wearing one of Remy's few white shirts and the only pair of
smart black slacks he owned. The man was slim, but Remy
could  see  the  hint  of  muscle  from  where  the  man  leaned
against  the  doorframe  and  the  material  pulled  tight  at  the
back  for  some  reason.  Perhaps  it  was  pinned  or  tied.  The
shirt  was  a  few  sizes  too  big  for  the  stranger,  but  Remy
couldn’t argue the man didn’t pull it off.

His wolf stirred, waking up inside him as he took deeper

breaths and pulled more of the man's scent into his lungs.
He smelled of hot chocolate and expensive leather—the man
smelled of home.

Remy couldn’t see the man's eyes because the man had

his  face  angled  away  from  him.  But  that  position  did  give
Remy  a  great  view  of  the  man's  stunning  profile.  The  man
looked  to  be  about  his  age.  A  strong  jaw  line  was  clean-
shaven. He had a perfectly straight nose, the blackest closed
eyes,  and  the  longest  eyelashes  Remy  had  ever  seen  on  a
man, and yet he didn’t look feminine. A slight smile curved
the corners of the lips that were ever so slightly pink.

"Don’t worry, I'm only teasing. It's normal to be forgetful

after a deep feeding like last night. I'm afraid I took more
than I should have because of my weakened state," the man
said, running his tongue over one sharp fang, then the other.

SA Welsh

Fangs. Plural. Holy shit.
"You're a vampire?" Remy's voice hit a pitch he'd never

done before, sounding more like a mouse than a wolf.

The smile vanished and the man stood straight, pushing

away from the doorframe with a shoulder. "Yes. But you
know that already. I have known a few first-time donors to
be a little forgetful, but none have had a full case of amnesia.
Think. What do you remember of last night?" The man
looked at him face on now, eyes open, and Remy was struck
by how beautifully bright his stunning blue eyes were.

But the man had asked a good question. Exactly what did

he remember?

The vampire said it had been only a few hours, and yet

the sun had clearly gone down, since his lighting had turned
on. The electrician he’d hired to check out the place before
he bought it had installed sensors to tell when a person was
in a room when it was dark and light it gently with soft
light.

Closing his eyes, he fingered his hair back into a ponytail

and tied it with the spare band he kept on his wrist. Those
eyes  he  definitely  remembered,  but  it  was  weird.  The  eyes
he  remembered  were  just  as  beautiful,  although  there  was
something significantly different about them. The color. He
remembered them being red.

And the vampire had fed from him. He knew that much

from what the man said—and from the way his cock started
to fill, he knew he'd enjoyed feeding the handsome vampire.

There was something in the back of his mind telling him

the vampire had been hurt and that was why he'd fed him.
And  like  a  flash  of  lightning,  everything  became  clear.  He
remembered  being  summoned  to  the  alpha  house,
remembered  Trevor  telling  him  to  do  something  horrible
and  fighting  the  wolf.  Remy  also  remembered  winning  the

Blind Under the Moon

fight and sending Rylan to make sure Trevor and the man's
inner circle left his lands.

Wow. He was alpha now.
Remy reached back and felt around the skin of his back

where  Trevor  had  torn  chunks  out  of  him.  Despite  his
enhanced  healing  from  semi  shifting,  he  should  still  have
had  some  painful  marks  on  his  body.  All  his  fingers
encountered  was  smooth  skin,  a  little  tender,  but  fully
healed.

"My back is healed," he said in surprise.
"Oh. When you passed out, I licked your wounds clean,"

the man commented with a graceful wave of a hand.

The sound Remy made to that was an even mix between

huh and eww. But luckily, he didn’t offend the vampire and
instead the man flashed him a fangy grin. "I'm a vampire.
Blood isn’t really a turnoff for us."

Frowning, Remy narrowed his gaze in on the sharp fangs

that  seemed to lengthen as  he watched. "But Trevor pulled
them  out,"  he  said,  getting  up  and  walking  closer  to  the
vampire  until  he  was  close  enough  to  touch.  He  hesitated,
then raised a hand towards the vampire's mouth. "Can I?"

The vampire jumped slightly, a move almost too small for

Remy to notice. "Yes," the vampire responded, breathing a
little more quickly and shallowly.

He'd expected the fangs to feel like his teeth, but if the

indrawn breath and shudder was anything to go by, the
vampire's fangs were much more sensitive. "How?"

Remy stopped touching the vampire's fangs to let the

man answer. The scent of lust filling the room was
distracting and a quick glance down proved that he wasn’t
the only one erect and wanting. The shorts he'd worn before
he fell asleep were gone and he realized he was naked.

Nudity wasn't a big thing for shifters usually, but the

thought of anyone seeing the vampire anything other than

SA Welsh

fully clothed set his teeth on edge. But other paranormals
and humans tended to be a bit uptight about that, and Remy
wasn’t sure whether to be insulted that the vampire hadn’t
sneaked a peek at his goods.

Remy was in good physical shape, as a dominant

shifter—apparently  alpha  now—but  he  thought  his  body
was better than average. Working with heavy car parts that
humans would find near impossible to lift by hand gave him
a regular workout, and his arms and legs showed that, while
his  running  and  hiking  had  carved  him  a  pronounced  full
set of abs. He wasn’t vain, but he noticed the looks men and
women gave him. So why wasn’t the vampire interested? It
bothered him. And his wolf was affronted that the vampire
didn’t find him attractive enough to look at.

"When you fed me, you had so much energy and power

running through you from your wolf becoming alpha that it
was enough to not only heal my body, but also stimulate my
healing abilities to regrow my fangs," the vampire explained,
flinching at the end part. Remy guessed that must have hurt
like a bitch.

Silence fell between them, but it wasn’t awkward. His

wolf settled inside him as he let himself lean forward to sniff
the  vampire's  neck.  He  had  the  strongest  feeling  that  he'd
bitten the man, but he wasn’t sure. Remy was just about to
ask  when  the  vampire  moved  closer  to  him  an  apparently
misjudged the gap as their heads clunked together.

"Ow!" They both stepped back.
"Sorry. I did not realize you had leaned closer. I

apologize," the vampire said formally.

"This is ridiculous. I can't keep calling you the vampire in

my  head.  What's  your  name?  And  what  do  you  mean  you
didn’t  realize?  You  must  have  seen  me  lean  closer  to  sniff
you,"  he  said,  rubbing  his  forehead.  Damn,  vampires  had
hard heads.

Blind Under the Moon

"My name is Skylar Bankcroft." Skylar smiled briefly for a

moment before reverting to the mask of seriousness. "And I
didn’t see you because I am blind."

Well that certainly wasn’t what he was expecting. "But

you  said  my  blood  healed  you?"  Did  the  vampire  need
more?  He  raised  his  arm  to  offer  it  to  the  vampire,
encouraging Skylar's hand to bring it to the man's mouth.

"You blood did heal me…of everything the other shifters

did. I have been blind for many years now and have
accepted it. But I thank you for the precious gift you gave
me, Mon âme soeur sang." The vampire pressed a chaste kiss
to his wrist, right over his vein, then let him go.

Remy was still taking in the fact that the vampire was

blind—he didn’t act blind. "My name's Remy," he muttered
tilting his head.

"I know. I heard your mother say it when you were

fighting,"  Skylar  said  before  turning  away  as  if
uncomfortable. See, it was things like that that made Remy
not  notice  anything  wrong  with  Skylar's  sight.  Maybe  the
blindness wasn’t an old thing? Perhaps just long enough for
Skylar to be aware enough to function without his sight. "I
think I hear more shifters approaching. I can't tell if they're
friendly or not. Will you accept my word that I mean your
pack  and  especially  you  no  harm?  I  promise  to  explain
everything  once  I've  contacted  my  coven."  Skylar  sounded
rushed  and  Remy  picked  up  the  distinct  scent  of  fear  and
anxiety.

Because of the other shifters?
Remy didn’t enjoy the thought of having to wait for any

more explanations of what Skylar was trying to hide. And
the sexy vampire was definitely hiding something. Something
important.

Skylar shifted nervously as he stayed quiet and didn’t

answer.

SA Welsh

"Fine. But I want to know everything after. I know you're

hiding a number of things. Just because I'm a wolf doesn't
mean I'm a stupid tail chaser."

Remy nearly laughed when Skylar's eyes popped wide

and  the  loquacious  vampire  was  surprisingly  at  a  loss  for
words. As it was, he settled for a brief smile, thinking of how
shocked  the  vampire's  expression  would  be  if  he  knew
Remy  knew  and  used  words  like  loquacious.  Most  people
assumed  that  because  he  worked  with  cars  and  was  a
mechanic, he was stupid. The muscles didn’t help with that
misconception  either,  but  Remy  always  figured  if  people
couldn’t  be  bothered  to  look  beyond  the  packaging,  then
they weren’t worth his time anyway.

Remy could hear the shifters coming up to the house now.

He was curious as to who it was. Even at a run, there was
little chance Rylan could have made it to the pack territory
boundary and back in two and a half hours.

Something told him this wasn’t going to be a visitor with

good news.

"Now give me a second to get dressed, then I'll go greet

my guests," he said before turning  and heading over to his
dresser and pulling out a pair of jeans. The denim was old,
so it fit nicely but had a little bit more stretch, just in case he
needed to shift. A  shifter never wanted to be stuck in their
clothes  after  they'd  shifted.  It  made  them  vulnerable  to
attack.

When he'd fastened the fly he turned back to the door

where Skylar was standing and saw a worried expression on
the vampire's face. As he got closer, his wolf grew uneasy
from the intense fear he could smell. "You can stay in here if
you want."

He didn’t imagine Skylar was keen on being in a room

with strange shifters after what had happened with Trevor
and the betas. Remy wouldn’t think less of the man if he

Blind Under the Moon

chose  not  to  come  downstairs  to  face  whoever  it  was  he
could  hear  testing  the  door.  There  were  a  few  different
voices  arguing,  but  he  couldn’t  place  them  from  up  here,
since they were whispering.

"Are they your friends?"
Well, he couldn’t lie. "I don’t know. I can't t tell. I think

one of them is Rylan, but…" Remy trailed off with a shrug,
then realized Skylar wouldn’t see it and added, "Let's just
say that I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a few more visitors
now or soon. Trevor and the betas had quite a few friends
here and I doubt they'll be pleased with me taking over."

Skylar looked torn and Remy wondered if the vampire

just wanted to leave. "Then I will come with you, Mon âme
soeur  sang,"  Skylar  announced  firmly.  "But  I  would  ask  to
use  your  cell  phone  to  contact  my  coven.  I  have  already
missed  an  arranged  check-in  time,  and  they  will  worry  if  I
do not call them soon."

Remy was going to ask what Skylar was doing wandering

around near pack lands in the first place when he heard his
front door open. He knew he'd locked it. Damn it. He could
hear people in the house now too. He needed to get down
there now.

He ran back to his bed, grabbed the phone off the tabletop

beside  it,  and  handed  it  to  Skylar.  Remy  was  about  to  run
downstairs  and  see  what  was  going  on  when  he
remembered  that  Skylar  was  blind.  "So  you  need  me  to  do
the numbers?" Was there an etiquette for offering help?

The vampire didn’t seem offended, he just shook his head

as a negative and Remy left him to it. As he got to the stairs,
he heard Skylar speak quietly to someone on the phone. "I
am okay. There was a problem with the alpha you wanted
me to approach, but there is a new alpha now and he's…"

Remy couldn’t hear what else was said because he'd

reached the bottom of the stairs and the shifters in his house

SA Welsh

needed  all  of  his  attention.  He  could  smell  Rylan  and  his
eldest  brother  Micah,  but  he  also  could  smell  a  few  other
scents he wasn’t too familiar with. The other scents belonged
to males in the pack, but he couldn’t put faces to them.

Following the voices, he picked up the notes of aggression

and anger in the air and let his wolf rise, waiting in case he
needed  to  shift  fast.  Since  he'd  shifted  to  his  alpha  form  to
fight Trevor, it was like a switch had flipped inside him. He
no  longer struggled to keep his wolf under control, fearing
he  was  going  to  snap  at  someone.  For  months,  he'd  been
afraid that his wolf would break free and he would have to
turn  rogue,  be  exiled  from  the  pack.  Remy  felt  more  in
control and himself than ever.

He rounded the corner and entered the large living area

where  he'd  bought  some  comfy  armchairs  and  set  up  a
reading  room.  Originally,  he'd  bought  enough  furniture  to
fit his siblings in the house if they came for a visit, but so far,
none  of  them  had.  But  he'd  only  had  the  house  a  few
months,  so  he  couldn’t  be  too  disappointed.  Come  the
holidays he'd probably be begging them to leave.

"—I'm not going anywhere. You have no rank over me.

Alpha Trevor would never allow such a mutt to climb above
good pure wolves."

Rylan and Micah stood with four other shifters in a kind

of standoff. Rylan was trying to convince the shifters to leave
and Micah was just growling and glowering. As his brother
was part of another pack, it could start a pack war if
anything happened and Micah struck first.

No one had realized he'd walked into the room yet so he

simply stood and took in the scene. Two of the four shifters
he  recognized  from  the  alpha  house  and  one  as  the  man
who'd been giving off creepy vibes as he'd looked at Skylar
when  he  was  ruthlessly  chained.  The  fourth  he  didn’t
recognize, even his scent, which put his wolf on edge.

Blind Under the Moon

Who was this man? Remy noted the shifter's scent was

smoky,  like  the  scent  distorting  smoke  Trevor  always  had
burning  in  the  Alpha  house.  Something  didn’t  seem  right
about  this.  The  only  reason  someone  would  cover  up  their
scent would be to hide who or what they were.

"Trevor isn’t alpha anymore," Micah growled, staring

down the man who'd spoken.

"He is the rightful alpha. There is no way your faggot runt

of a brother defeated our alpha," one of the other shifters
piped up, taking a threatening step towards Rylan when his
friend growled in disagreement.

"Trevor was nothing but a bully and a sadist," Ryan spat

at the taller shifter as he stepped forward and made his
presence known.

The man blustered and puffed up his chest ridiculously.

"How  dare  you!"  Remy  could  see  the  shifter  was  getting
ready to shift and while Rylan could hold his own in a fight,
he didn't want to start a fight without knowing exactly who
and  maybe  what  the  quiet  shifter  hanging  in  the  back  was.
The fact that the stranger wasn’t getting upset and showed
no sort of expression on his face at all told Remy he was the
one in control here, winding up the performing monkeys.

Remy might not have been trained to be an alpha, but he

knew the most important rules and customs surrounding the
respect pack members must show to their alpha. And almost
at the very top of that list was that a shifter never ever
entered an alpha’s home uninvited.

Remy let out a barking growl and stalked further into the

room. "You approach my home uninvited, you enter without
permission,  and  you  show  blatant  disrespect  for  another
member  of  my  pack  and  do  so  in  front  of  a  high  ranking
member visiting from another pack. So, yes…how dare you
indeed."  He  drew out  the  last  word  as  he  came  to  a  stop  in

SA Welsh

front of the four hostile shifters. The position placed his
brother and Rylan safely behind him.

To add insult to injury, the four shifters did not show him

the customary submission. He couldn’t keep his wolf down
at  that  show  of  disrespect.  Reaching  inside  himself,  he
pulled  forth  his  alpha  shift  and  quickly  grew  to  his  seven
foot, deadly clawed, slightly furry form. Just to emphasis the
point,  he  snarled  and  displayed  his  inch  long  and  deadly
sharp teeth.

The three shifters who'd been mouthing off were

suddenly  struck  mute  and  Remy  could  actually  feel  their
inner  wolves  cowering  away  from  him.  They  dropped  to
their knees and offered their necks as if a puppet master had
pulled  on  their  strings.  If  they'd  been  in  wolf  form,  Remy
knew, they would have wet themselves.

But the other man didn’t move. Remy's wolf went still at

the challenging in the man's eyes. Yes, this one was very
dangerous.

"Stand down," he warned, ignoring the kneeling shifters

and moving towards the other man.

Their gazes battled and Remy let almost the full force of

his wolf show in his eyes. Finally the man's eyes widened in
shock and his gaze dropped away. But Remy could scent the
anger and resentment emanating from the man. There was a
lot of anger.

Still, the man hadn’t shown proper submission—even

now.

He snapped his jaws and growled deeply. If the man still

wouldn’t  submit,  then  he  would  have  to  challenge  him.
Remy  couldn’t  afford  to  let  this  sort  of  disrespect  slide.
There  were  always  vultures  ready  to  pick  at  any  wounds,
and  he  wasn’t  prepared  to  be  left  open  because  of  one
stranger.  His  wolf  senses  told  him  the  man  was  dangerous
and  not  someone  he  wanted  to  turn  his  back  on.  But  that

Blind Under the Moon

didn’t mean he couldn’t send a message that he wasn’t going
to be easy to bring down.

At this point, his wolf was so enraged Remy was tempted

just to let him out. But there was no doubt that he'd end up
killing the intruding shifters. And that might not be the best
way to deal with whoever this man was. Even though the
man was no longer challenging Remy with his eyes, he had
still not bared his throat.

"Submit."
"No," the word was said with such venom Remy was

momentarily shocked.

But his wolf forced his hand—literally—and he grabbed

the insolent man around the throat and lifted the man off the
floor.  He  brought  the  man  close  enough  so  that  he  could
snap  his  teeth  only  millimeters  from  the  man's  face.  A
gratifying  scent  of  fear  crept  up  Remy's  nose,  but  he  still
couldn’t get a solid scent of who or what the man was.

Just at that moment, Skylar chose to come downstairs and

call for him. "Alpha Remington?" The vampire's formal tone
could have been mistaken for a simple note of respect, but
he knew Skylar was asking where he was in the house.

"In here, Skylar," he answered calmly. Skylar would be

able to use his voice as a guide.

The vampire appeared from around the corner a few

seconds  later  and  Remy  growled,  quietly  this  time.  He
wanted the vampire safe and definitely nowhere near any of
the shifters who'd forced their way into his house. "Go over
to my brother, please. Micah, introduce yourself," he said in
a  way  that  left  no  room  for  disagreement,  but  didn’t  come
across as harsh.

He hoped Micah wouldn’t question why he wanted the

vampire over by him. His brother was strong enough to
keep the other shifters away from Skylar if things kicked off.

SA Welsh

Remy also didn’t want the others to know Skylar was blind.
It would be like chumming the water for sharks.

Luckily, his big brother was quick on the uptake and

stepped towards Skylar and held his hand out. "Let me offer
greetings and shake your hand, Skylar…?"

"Bankcroft. It is a pleasure to meet you," Skylar returned,

grasping  the  hand  offered  to  him  confidently,  looking
Remy's brother in the eye. He'd have to ask how the vampire
did  that  later.  With  his  brother  taking  over  watch  of  the
vampire, Remy returned his attention to the man in his grip,
still  dangling  off  the  floor,  who  was  now  turning  an
interesting shade of purple.

"You will leave my territory before dawn." Remy didn’t

bother saying what would happen if his order was willfully
ignored. By shifter law, the outcast's life would be forfeit.

With that, he dropped the man and shifted back to his

human form. The change wasn’t as disorientating this time
and he stayed steady on his feet. Glaring at the man getting
to his feet, Remy addressed Rylan. "Rylan, get these men out
of my house."

He didn’t have to look to know his best friend was

grinning.  Remy waited until the men were being  forcefully
herded past him before he said in a low, dangerous voice. "I
know  your  scent  now."  There  didn’t  need  to  be  a  spoken
threat—the  tone  was  enough  to  back  up  the  hint  in  the
words, and he saw the message was received when three of
the men gulped and the scent of fear thickened.

Blind Under the Moon

Chapter Four

s soon as the front door slammed and he heard the
distant rumble of a car engine—a six-year-old Range

Rover, to be exact—and Rylan reappeared through the
doorway, Remy breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning around, he went straight to Skylar and reached a

hand up to smooth the vampire's cheek. He hadn’t realized
how worried he'd been that one of the shifters would make a
play for Skylar and hurt the man again. "You okay?"

Skylar smiled and nodded, seeming pleased Remy had

asked. "Yes, I  am fine, Remy. I do  believe you scared them
enough  their  tales  are  well  and  truly  tucked  between  their
legs.  I  thank  you  for  attempting  to  conceal  the  fact  of  my
blindness from them." The vampire put his hands on Remy's
shoulders.

"I didn’t think it would be a good idea for them to know.

They would think you were easy pickings," he growled,
remembering the way the one shifter had looked at Skylar—
like a meal.

"Thank you. However, I assure you, Mon âme soeur sang,

I am more than capable. The alpha who captured me was the
first one to get the drop on me since I honed my other senses
to compensate for my eyes. It will not happen again," Skylar
told him, sounding sure and determined. And Remy
couldn’t have been more turned on in that moment. He
didn't have to look down to know his jeans were doing very

SA Welsh

little to hide his arousal. Could he just take the vampire back
upstairs and finish what they started earlier?

"No, unfortunately you cannot," Skylar whispered,

surprising Remy. He knew he hadn’t spoken aloud. But his
mind was getting a little scrambled as Skylar's hands slowly
started drifting from his shoulders and down his chest.

His breath itched when the vampire's soft hands passed

over his nipples.

"Another thing to explain later?"
The vampire, to his credit blushed and laughed along

with Remy. "Yes. I am afraid that is getting to be a rather
long list." The frustration in Skylar's tone made him laugh
again.

At least he wasn’t in this alone. Skylar appeared to be just

as affected, with a large bulge showing under the borrowed
slacks.

Remy stopped Skylar's hands when they travelled down

to  his  lower  stomach  so  he  wouldn’t  forget  about  his  best
friend  and  his  brother  being  in  the  room  and  throw  the
vampire on the floor to experience exactly how good shifter
lovin' could be.

"I'm keeping count," he teased before letting go of Skylar's

hands. He'd take the vampire at his word and try not to be
too helpful.

He turned and saw his brother watching him closely.

"Hey, you got here fast."

"I was on assignment for my alpha not too far from Trev-

your borders. My alpha gave me leave once I'd reported over
the  phone,"  Micah  said  slowly  and  something  passed  over
his  face.  It  was  gone  before  Remy  could  identify  it.  Micah
came  forward  and  pulled  him  into  a  big  bear  hug.  It  had
been  a  while  since  they'd  seen  each  other,  and  neither  of
them were that good at remembering to call or email.

Blind Under the Moon

"Missed you big brother," he whispered, lowering his

head  onto  Micah's  shoulder.  All  four  of  his  brothers  were
taller than he, and his two sisters were only an inch shorter.
If  he  weren’t  so  secure  in  himself,  he  would  have  felt
emasculated growing up being the runt.

"I leave you alone for like a month and all hell breaks

loose. Mom said you beat Trevor in a challenge. Now tell me
what the fuck's going on, runt," Micah growled
affectionately as they broke the hug.

Rylan took offence and stepped forward. "You can't call

him  that  now,  Micah.  He  is  an  alpha,"  Rylan  said  a  bit
sharper  than  Remy  thought  was  needed.  But  there  had
always something of a love-hate relationship between Rylan
and Micah.

Micah waved off Rylan's comment and glanced towards

Skylar. "He yours?"

Remy knew he and his brother liked the same physical

attributes on a man, and just imagining his brother looking
at  Skylar,  thinking  about  touching  Skylar,  sent  his  wolf's
power  scorching  through  his  veins.  And  before  he  realized
what he was doing he growled at Micah and backed his big
brother  up  against  the  wall  until  Micah  bared  his  neck  in
submission.

"Mine!"
"Remy, no!"
Skylar somehow eased him away from his brother. He

pulled the vampire against him and tried to take deep,
calming breaths. He'd never snapped like that before at his
brother.

"Well there's no doubt about you being an alpha, little

brother. My wolf was ready to roll over and show you our
belly. I don’t even get that strong a reaction in the face of my
own alpha's anger." Micah sounded winded and in shock for

SA Welsh

a minute before slowly peeling away from the wall. His
brother still didn’t risk eye contact, though.

Now Remy felt bad. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's my fault. I knew you wanted the vampire, and I

wanted to see whether the power I felt from you earlier was
a fluke. I have my answer," Micah said with a laugh. His
brother looked between him and Skylar before saying, "I'm
going to get a drink. Rylan, come help me?" His brother and
friend left the room.

Skylar's grip on his arm tightened and Remy suddenly

felt uncomfortable. He'd basically just publicly claimed a
man who he didn’t know wanted him for more than sex and
blood. Damn it, this was exactly why he didn’t put himself
out there.

"It's okay, Remy. You're mine too." The vampire's tongue

darted out to moisten the lips that Remy would kill to kiss,
revealing  just  the  tip  of  descended  fangs.  Vampire  fangs
seem  to  act  similar  to  shifters’,  descending  in  moments  of
high emotions—especially anger and lust.

Frowning, Remy led the way over to the biggest armchair

and  pulled  Skylar  down  to  sit  with  him.  There  was  just
enough room for them to share the seat and cuddle up to fit
without  it  being  too  squashed.  Thankfully,  the  vampire  let
himself be pulled along. Remy realized that vampires were
just as physically strong as shifters, so in theory Skylar could
pull away at any time.  "I know we said we'd talk about this
later,  but  this  really  can't  wait.  My  wolf  wants  you,  I  want
you,  and  the  only  way  I  would  have  attacked  my  brother
like that would have been if he had threatened my place as
your mate." He took a deep breath and tried to think of the
best  way  to  put  it.  "But  you  don’t  smell  like  my  mate,"  he
said regretfully and his wolf howled inside him.

Skylar was theirs. He had to be.

Blind Under the Moon

The vampire shifted on the seat, then just lifted up so he

was on Remy’s lap. Remy’s erection had deflated as soon as
he'd attacked his brother, but having the lithe vampire
sitting on him was certainly starting to get the blood flowing
south again.

"I am your mate, Remy. Just as you are my Mon âme

soeur sang, my blood soul mate. Do you know any true
mated pairs that are not human or wolf shifter?"

"No, what does that have to do with anything?"
Skylar's face wrinkled, then smoothed as the man's

eyebrows jerked up once in surprise. "Just answer one more
question. Did the previous alpha use that smoke a lot
around the pack?"

He just wanted to demand answers now, but he figured

that was just his wolf wanting to be in charge. And he was
used  to  smacking  him  down  nicely  after  a  few  months
practice. "Yes, he insisted that it be at every pack gathering
every  month  and  in  any  pack-run  business  Trevor  owned.
He said it was supposed to calm our wolves so that we could
trade with other shifters and not feel the need to dominate,"
Remy answered, getting a bad feeling. "But it makes it near
impossible  to  scent  a  person.  A  strong  shifter  can  maybe
pick up emotions, but not much more."

Trevor lied like he breathed, but it had been a plausible

explanation,  and  people  hadn’t  really  noticed  any  adverse
effects so they'd gotten used to it. Remy had always found it
uncomfortable to breathe it in so avoided any place where it
was  used  if  he  could.  It  kind  of  felt  like  when  you  were
drinking and you saw something funny on  TV at the exact
moment  you  were  swallowing  and  the  drink  tried  to  burst
out of your nose.

Skylar nodded and Remy tried to concentrate on what his

vampire was saying instead of the beautiful blue eyes

SA Welsh

looking at him. If he didn’t know Skylar was blind, he'd
never have guessed from the way he acted.

"That smoke doesn’t affect a vampire's sense of smell. It

gives me a headache, but does nothing more. The man who
wouldn’t  submit  to  you  was  a  jackal  shifter,  and  they've
been known to play around with various herbs in the past to
hide  scents  and  lately  to  engineer  obedience  by  essentially
drugging  the  shifters  animal  into  compliance.  I  think  the
smoke  is  a  new  mix  of  the  two,  which  you  have  been
exposed  to  over  time  to  engineer  pack  compliance."  Skylar
sighed  and  Remy  scented  the  sadness  coming  off  the
vampire.

Remy didn’t know what to say. That was a lot to think

about in a short space of time.

Skylar took a breath before continuing and Remy almost

didn’t want to hear any more. "I can feel the bond starting to
grow  between  us.  My  coven  saved  a  jackal  shifter  from
rogues  a  few  years  ago  and  we  have  slowly  been  able  to
figure out ways to counteract certain formulas with his help.
He  can  probably  fix  this.  If  you  want  to  wait  before
continuing  our  relationship  I  understand,"  Skylar  said,
sounding sincere, but looking sad.

For a shifter, finding their true mate was a magical,

wondrous  thing.  And  even  though  he  couldn't  smell  that
Skylar  was  his  mate,  he  couldn't  deny  that  he  felt  they
belonged together. "I don’t want  to wait. If your coven can
fix  whatever  damage  the  smoke  has  done  to  me  and  my
pack,  then  I  will  be  forever  grateful,  but  I  know  you're
mine."

Skylar visibly relaxed, almost melting against him. "I have

waited so long for you."

Remy held his vampire close for another few minutes

before the pressure of having so much more to figure out
forced his hand. Skylar must have felt the change in his

Blind Under the Moon

mood because he shifted off Remy's lap and squeezed back
onto the seat next to him. "Call your brother and friend back
in. We have much to discuss, and it will be easier to do it
face to face than with them pressing their ears to the door."

Sure enough, his brother and Rylan sheepishly walked

back into the room. Remy gave them an amused look and
arched a brow. "Hear anything interesting?"

Micah smiled and nodded, but stayed quiet. Usually

Micah was relaxed and chatty with him, but Remy guessed
after  being  thrown  into  a  wall,  his  brother  was  a  bit  more
wary. Rylan, on the other hand, just seemed confused. This
morning Rylan and Remy had had no rank to speak of, and
now  he  was  alpha  and  delegating  responsibilities  to  Rylan
like he would his beta or second. A second was more than a
beta  and  had  more  authority.  Trevor  had  never  had  one
because  he'd  probably  thought  it  gave  someone  other  than
him too much power.

"At least we won't have to go over it again." Remy

motioned for the other two shifters to sit down as he tried to
think  about  what  to  do  next.  Perhaps  he  should  treat  this
like  a  business  and  break  the  problem  down  into  parts  to
deal with them individually.

"Skylar, can you contact your coven and ask them

whether  they  would  be  interested  in  us  paying  for  the
jackal's  time  to  come  here  and  work  on  an  antidote  to  the
smoke?"  The  Pack  had  funds,  and  as  soon  as  he  cut  off
Trevor's  access  to  them,  he'd  have  full  control.  Trevor  was
the  type  to  like  a  lot  of  money,  so  Remy  was  certain  there
would be enough money for anything the pack would need.
If not, he could always dip into his own savings.

His vampire nodded and produced the cell Remy had

given him upstairs and started typing. He really would have
to ask how Skylar did that. Still texting, Skylar lifting his
head and Remy stared into the beautiful eyes. "My coven

SA Welsh

will be very interested in this Trevor, so they are likely to
help solely in exchange for any information you have about
Trevor."

That brought up another problem. If they bonded, would

Skylar be willing to consider moving in with him here? The
vampire stopped texting and looked at him, telling him
softly "My place is with my Mon âme soeur sang. With you."
Skylar returned to composing the rather long, but no doubt
flawless text.

Wow. That was the most romantic thing anyone had ever

said to him, and Skylar acted like it was obvious. Perhaps for
the vampire, it was. It was hot, very hot. God, his libido was
working overtime here.

Shrugging off the maudlin feeling that threatened to drag

him into over-thinking things he didn’t have time to dwell
on, Remy turned his attention to his best friend.

"Rylan, do you accept the position as one of my seconds?"

A typical pack inner circle of power consisted of usually one
second, two to four betas, and depending on the size of the
pack, a half dozen enforcers. But Remy had another thought
about who would be his other second if all worked out.
However, it was too soon to do anything about that yet.

His friend's back snapped straight at the mention of his

name and Remy watched the shock dawn as his words sank
in. Rylan had never held a rank since his mother was human
and his wolf was smaller because of that. But his friend was
strong  and  smart  enough  to  do  a  good  job  as  his  second.
And Rylan was loyal—which would be very important. If he
could, Remy would have simply handed over leadership to
a  good  shifter  who  wanted  the  job  as  alpha,  but  he'd
effectively  challenged  Trevor,  and  that  meant  he  had  no
choice or way out.

"Me?"
Micah sat forward too, "Yeah, him?"

Blind Under the Moon

Rylan's head snapped towards his brother and Remy

swore the note of disbelief hurt his friend.

"Rylan is a strong wolf. He is loyal, keeps a level head and

tells me when he thinks I'm about to do something stupid—
like when I tried to die my hair red and it turned out bright
orange.  He  will  make  a  wonderful  second.  If  he  accepts,"
Remy  added  after  a  glare  at  his  brother  that  in  no  way
invited further comment.

Rylan was quiet for a few minutes, then smiled widely. "I

accept. But you said one of your seconds. How many are
you planning on having?"

"Two," Remy answered without elaborating.
"What about betas?" This question came from Micah and

it sounded like his brother had pulled the stick out of his ass.

He couldn’t work out from Micah's tone whether there

was  something  behind  the  comment  or  not.  And  maybe  it
was  just  because  his  wolf  was  becoming  more  dominant
than  he  was  used  to,  but  Remy  was  suddenly  very  aware
that  his  brother  answered  to  another  alpha.  Skylar  noticed
his unease and put the cell phone down. The vampire leaned
against  him  and  snaked  an  arm  around  his  waist,  fingers
tickling his side as they little drew patterns.

"I'm going to hold a rank contest and put out word that

I'm looking for new blood to fill my beta and enforcer
positions," he said carefully. There were some good fighters
in the pack, but it would be good to open up the positions to
others looking for a pack to call home. And it would
strengthen the pack in the long run.

It was painful to believe his brother might be asking to

report to his alpha, but Remy could see why Micah might be
interested. His brother's pack wasn’t that far away, and any
major pack shake-up might have consequences for close
packs.

Micah nodded. "That's a really good idea, bro."

SA Welsh

"Again with the shock," Rylan commented coldly,

standing and coming to stand by the arm of the chair Remy
and Skylar sat in.

"Watch it, pup," Micah cautioned.
He could have stepped in and stopped it right there, but

there was a long history of his brother picking on Rylan for
one thing or the other. Somehow, he'd forgotten about that.
Micah wasn’t a cruel man, but it seemed every little thing
about his friend pushed a button.

"Not a pup. And it's you who should watch it. I outrank

you now," Rylan pointed out.

Everything went deadly quiet, and Remy was about to

change the subject when the cell phone rang. Skylar quickly
answered it and started talking quietly into the device.

It was probably best if he separated his friend and brother

before things got more heated. Rylan had certainly made his
point. Micah would just have to deal with it.

Easing up from the chair while trying not to disturb

Skylar  as  the  vampire  explained  to  his  coven  about  the
smoke, Remy caught and held Rylan's attention. "I need you
to  go  to  the  bank  and  remove  Trevor  from  everything,  no
matter  how  small.  I  want  his  name  and  right  to  access
removed. Then I want you to pick a few shifters you trust to
go to Trevor's house and shut it down. I want no one getting
in there until the jackal shifter gets here." He'd heard most of
the other side of Skylar's conversation and knew the coven
was willing to send the jackal to help them.

Rylan nodded and he could see his friend already

forming a mental list of the things and places Trevor might
have stashed pack funds.

"I think we should put a dozen of the stronger shifters in

the pack on guard at the house,” Rylan said. “We lost
Trevor's scent before the borders, and I wouldn’t put it past
the bastard to try and sneak back in tonight."

Blind Under the Moon

"I agree. Only put shifters on duty that you know

personally. I'm beginning to wonder how many shifters are
in the pack we can trust," he said very quietly, leaning close
to  Rylan's  ear.  It  was  low  enough  his  brother  wouldn’t  be
able to hear. "I'm going to announce the rank contest to the
council and the neighboring packs to invite any who wish to
enter,  on  the  condition  they  pass  a  background  test."  Just
because  Remy  wanted  new  shifters  to  come  into  the  pack
and  planned  to  offer  a  home  to  other  shifters  who  didn’t
have anywhere didn’t mean he was going to be stupid about
it.  As  soon  as  he  could  get  in  touch  with  his  college  friend
Paul,  he  was  going  to  get  backgrounds  drawn  up  on  all
existing pack members. Trevor had refused entry to tens of
shifters for one reason or another—mostly if they were gay
or physically weak—and Remy had no intention of carrying
on the farce.

And the first thing he was going to do when he registered

his succession with the shifter council would be to abolish all
the stupid laws Trevor had taken it upon himself to make—
including  the  one  about  not  mating  humans  and  not
accepting  humans  into  the  pack.  Human  mates  were  not
regarded  as  pack  and  therefore  did  not  have  certain
protections  or  rights  like  raising  or  seeing  their  shifter
children if the shifter partner died. It was disgusting.

His friend just nodded left without another word. Rylan

most likely knew what he was planning to do anyway.

When he heard Rylan's motorbike spin away, he turned to

his  brother.  Micah  was  watching  him  in  that  weird  way
again. "Do not speak to him that way again, Micah. I don’t
know why you dislike him so much, but the taunting ends
now.  I  love  you,  you're  my  brother,  but  you  are  also  an
outsider  to  this  pack  and  I  will  not  tolerate  your  behavior
towards Rylan anymore."

SA Welsh

Micah sat back like Remy had punched him, but he cut

his brother off when the shifter went to argue. "No. You
have always been able to shut me down in the past as you
are older and were stronger. The latter is no longer true."

"I never shut you down," Micah shouted, getting to his

feet.

Remy stepped forward and stood toe to toe with his

brother. He wasn’t being aggressive, and his wolf didn’t rise.
He knew he could beat Micah and had no wish to make his
brother submit again. But also wasn’t going to back down on
this.

It was like everything he'd kept bottled up for years was

leaking out and he was finally able to speak.

"Yes. You did. Maybe not consciously, but your wolf

would  show  in  your  eyes  when  I'd  ask  why  you  were  so
mean." Remy didn’t want to be cruel, but his brother didn’t
have  the  best  control  over  his  beast  when  he  was  angry.  It
made  him  a  good  beta,  fierce  and  formidable,  but  a  sucky
person to live with sometimes.

Again, Micah looked genuinely shocked. "I'm not mean to

him."

"Yes, you are," Skylar interrupted them, standing as well.

"But I  do  not believe you see  it as such. You think  you are
teasing,  having  a  heated  disagreement  with  a  friend,  but
Rylan is very clearly deeply hurt and resentful from what I
imagine has been years of misunderstandings. You care for
your brother's best friend and you are attracted to him. No
doubt  the  teasing  started  to  keep  yourself  distant  from  the
much younger shifter, but to Rylan you must have seemed
quite cruel for no reason that he could see," explained Skylar
wisely,  talking  as  if  he  had  swallowed  a  psychology
textbook.

Now it was Remy's turn to be shocked. "You like Rylan.

You like...like Rylan?"

Blind Under the Moon

Micah stopped looking at Skylar like he wasn’t about to

duct tape his mouth shut and growled at Remy. "What, are
you twelve?"

"No, but you clearly have issues if you think you have any

chance with him after all the shit you pulled," Remy said,
unable to keep his thoughts to himself. "He thinks you hate
him."

His brother all but crumpled for just a second. "I thought

we were just picking at each other…I didn’t know he
thought that. Honestly.” Micah choked out.

Skylar put a hand on Micah's arm for just a second. "He

isn’t a child anymore. You don’t have to keep him at bay.
Perhaps it is time to make amends?"

Micah didn’t say anything, just turned around and

walked  to  the  stairs.  Remy  and  Skylar  followed  and  his
brother looked back over his shoulder. "The rest of the hoard
should be here soon. I'm proud of you, Remy. I expected to
come  here  and  try  and  dig  you  out  a  mess,  but  you  have
everything  under  control  and  you're  more  confident  than
I've ever seen you. For what it's worth, I think Mom made a
bad choice in not telling you."

Remy watched as his brother ascended the stairs.

Remy sat in the chair with Skylar. They were finally

talking  while  they  waited  for  his  other  siblings  to  arrive.
Skylar had said that his coven requested entrance onto pack
lands and Remy had given permission for three vampires to
accompany  the  jackal  shifter  onto  his  territory.  Then  they
had  moved  onto  the  other  questions  he  had.  So  far  Skylar
had  told  him  what  happened  when  vampires  didn't  find  a
blood match or soul mate—Mon âme soeur sang.

"It's been decades, but the covens only started to notice

recently when the Elders started to go into bloodlust and
they had no mate to ground them. They had to be put down

SA Welsh

for  the  safety  of  the  coven.  I  have  the  natural  ability  to  go
unnoticed most of the time and was sent out to try to gather
information.  I  had  planned  on  approaching  your  alpha  in
the  hopes  that  he  would  be  able  to  provide  me  with  more
information  regarding  rumors  that  something  in  this  area
was somehow connected to the trouble my kind is having."

"That's pretty vague," Remy commented. He wasn’t

happy about Skylar being sent out on what could well have
been a wild goose chase, and a dangerous one at that. And
he didn’t know who was telling Skylar he blended in,
because the vampire was stunningly beautiful.

Skylar grinned, his sightless blue eyes sparkling. "Thank

you."

"Okay, pause this topic and explain how you can hear

what I'm thinking."

"I can hear you sometimes as the bond grows between us.

Every time I feed from you or you bite me the bond
solidifies. To complete it, there would have to be a blood
exchange bite over the heart. But I understand if you wish to
wait until you can smell the mate scent. I would not expect
you to take my word for it when you do not know me."

Remy thought over Skylar's words and found he had no

objections. He had concerns and worries, but not about them
being mates. And neither did his wolf. "I'd like to know
you," he whispered just before he pressed his lips to Skylar's.

They kissed like each other was air and they were

suffocating. He teased his tongue  past Skylar's lips and the
vampire  met  him,  taking  over  the  kiss  and  showing  Remy
who  was  more  experienced  and  skilled  with  the  art  of
kissing the brains out of someone.

"Wow," he breathed, panting as his lungs protested his

lack of oxygen.

Blind Under the Moon

The vampire cuddled closer, sniffing Remy's neck and

making him shiver. He really wanted Skylar to bite down on
his vein. He desperately wanted to feed his vampire again.

Skylar must have picked up that thought too as the

vampire  moved  so  he  was  straddling  Remy's  lap  and
pressed  his  face  into  Remy's  neck.  Sharp  teeth  scraped  his
skin and Remy's hands convulsed where they now rested on
Skylar's trim waist.

He still hadn’t put on a shirt, so he was bare-chested, and

Skylar's fingers were taking full advantage of that, slowly
smoothing towards his nipples. Remy had never been a big
fan of nipple play, but clearly he had been doing it wrong.
Just one skilled touch brought his nips to tingling hardness,
and his penis followed suit as the zinging sensations went
straight to his dick.

The vampire played with him, teasing him.
Remy bit his lip to keep the cry of impatience inside when

one  of  the  hands  torturing  him  slid  down  his  chest  and
stomach.  Just  the  very  tips  of  Skylar's  fingers  worked  their
way under his jeans and brushed the head of his cock.

"Skylar. Please." He wasn’t too proud to beg.
Skylar took pity on him and bit down. The twin flairs of

pain were almost enough to undo him. The first pull of his
vein as Skylar swallowed his blood made him think about
Skylar swallowing something else.

The fingers touching his dick dug further into his jeans

until  the  old  button  popped  open  and  the  zipper  went
down,  letting  his  cock  spring  free.  The  cool  air  contrasted
with the hot touch of his vampire  who was  attached to his
neck  and  grasping  his  prick.  Skylar  took  a  firmer  hold  on
him and Remy's toes curled as the vampire began to move
his hand up and down. His claws started to peek out from
his fingertips a little and his teeth lengthened and sharpened
as his excitement grew.

SA Welsh

"Faster.” He panted as he tried to pull Skylar's lower body

closer.

The vampire did as he asked and Remy growled and grit

his teeth. He wanted to bite Skylar again. He wanted to
mark and claim him.

"You can," Skylar said, pulling away from his neck and

gently licking the two holes closed, washing away the drips
of blood.

Remy didn’t need any more encouragement—he just

wrapped  one  hand  around  the  back  of  Skylar's  neck  and
roughly  yanked  him  down.  Skylar's  lust  scent  skyrocketed
when he licked the vampire's neck before marking him.

The grip on his cock was almost painful as the vampire

shuddered in pleasure against him. Remy groaned with
disappointment when the hand let go.

When he pulled back, Skylar's bright blue eyes were now

almost completely red.

"I accept you as my mate, Skylar Bankcroft. Do you accept

me as your mate?"

The vampire gasped, showing off those gorgeous fangs

again. "Yes. I pledge myself to you and only you until my
time has come to an end. Do you accept my pledge?"

Remy's wolf howled with happiness. "I do."
Skylar shocked him by growling lowly before he struck.

This time his vampire bit down on his chest over his heart.
But it wasn’t to feed. This was to mark. And Remy would
wear his mate's mark with pride.

As soon as Skylar retracted his teeth, Remy gripped both

side of Skylar's borrowed shirt and ripped it open. Buttons
flew everywhere, bouncing off walls. A few even hit him in
the face, but he wouldn’t let it deter him from his goal.
Remy sank his still sharpened teeth into Skylar's firm chest.

Remy lifted his head and looked down at the marks on

Skylar's body.

Blind Under the Moon

"I like my mark being on you," he confessed.
"Me too. I like knowing they'll leave a scar that others will

see. With you being naked and semi naked around people, it
makes me feel more secure to know you'll be marked."

Remy like the possessiveness he could hear in Skylar's

tone. "I've never cheated on a lover before and never would."

The blood red eyes flared for a moment and Remy

understood that his mate was a predator, too, and not one to
be taken lightly. It was one hell of a turn on. "I'll skin any
who try and take what is mine!"

Remy couldn’t help himself. He needed to touch and feel

more of his mate. He needed to claim him properly. With his
claws,  he  made  quick  work  of  the  borrowed  pants  Skylar
was  wearing  and  threw  the  offending  fabric  over  his
shoulder.

Skylar laughed, a lovely musical tone. "In a hurry for

something?"

Remy froze and realized he didn’t know whether Skylar

like to top or bottom. Recently he'd been a definite top and
he really, really, wanted to be inside Skylar's hot body right
now. "Please tell me you like to bottom." He was perilously
close to begging.

Thankfully, Skylar must have taken pity on him because

the vampire just laughed again and nodded. "I haven’t for a
very long time—over a century in fact, but I will for you. If
you promise you'll let me make love to you later and feel
your ass wrapped around me?"

"God yes," he breathed out in relief and let himself look at

his mate in all his glory.

Seeing Skylar's cock was like looking at a thing of beauty.

It was long, thick and perfectly shaped, with a cut and
exposed head that begged for his tongue to taste it.

"There's one more thing I should tell you. When vampires

meet and claim their Mon âme soeur sang…our bodies

SA Welsh

change.  Our  bodies  prepare  themselves—regardless  of
gender—for  our  mate."  Skylar  looked  very  uncomfortable
and even though the vampire was blind, the man wouldn’t
meet  his  eyes.  And  Remy  knew  it  was  a  conscious  move,
because the vampire had managed to find his gaze before.

His mind was so fuzzy with lust he couldn’t process what

Skylar was saying. "I don’t understand," he said resisting the
urge to moan in frustration. He didn’t want to talk anymore
right now.

"It means we don’t have to stop for lube," Skylar said

slowly.

That definitely sank through his fogged brain. "Really?"
Skylar lifted his head and the previously red eyes had

bleached back to the brilliant blue. "Yes, really," the vampire
snapped.

"That is so hot!" Remy kissed Skylar before the vampire

could  take  offence.  He  lifted  the  vampire  with  ease  and
Skylar got the hint and stayed on his knees so Remy could
reach  around  and  smooth  the  firm,  flawless  cheeks.  Damn,
you could just bounce a penny off those beauties.

Skylar laughed again, losing the self-conscious irritated

expression. This mind reading thing would take some
getting used to.

Remy concentrated and stared at his left hand until the

claws slowly receded. He had no wish to injure his mate.
And claws weren’t conducive to giving Skylar pleasure as he
got his mate ready to take his cock. He wasn’t small.

He gripped the cheek in his hand and squeezed. Skylar

moaned  and  Remy  sat  straighter  so  his  mate  could  rub  his
erection against his chest. He slid one hand down the crack
of  Skylar's  perfect  ass  and  tapped  his  index  finger  on  the
clenching rosette.

Blind Under the Moon

"Don’t be gentle. I like the burn sometimes," Skylar said

with a moan before pulling the pink bottom lip beneath
those tempting fangs.

Remy gently sank one finger inside his mate and sure

enough, he was met with little resistance. It was like Skylar
had been playing with himself and lube, but Remy knew the
vampire  had  done  no  such  thing.  He  wanted  to  ask
questions,  but  the  higher  functioning  part  of  his  brain  was
rapidly losing control of the blood supply.

"More," Skylar demanded, pushing back on his finger.

Remy obediently added another finger.

"Who's topping here?"
The vampire had the cheek to grin mischievously and say

"Oops?"

"Oh, you're going to be trouble, aren’t you?"
Skylar just winked and threw back at him. "Good job

you're an alpha then, isn’t it?"

Remy delivered a quick slap to Skylar's ass, but the

vampire just hissed and started fucking himself on his
fingers. He liked that his mate was being vocal about what
he wanted, and his wolf approved. They would need a
strong mate.

He added a third finger to Skylar's hole when his mate

slowed down.

"Now. Inside me, now," his mate ordered.
His wolf growled at the order, but not in a dominant way.

Remy wanted Skylar to be strong, wanted his mate to tell
him what to do to please him.

He thrust his fingers in and out a few more times before

he tapped Skylar's hip and his mate got himself into
position. Remy knew this was going to be his favorite chair
for the rest of his life.

Remy tried to scrape back some control so he didn’t just

thrust up inside his mate to the hilt. He lined up his cock

SA Welsh

and Skylar slowly sank down onto his cock, mouth open in a
silent cry.

"Too much?" Just because Skylar's body was lubed, it

didn’t mean Remy could just push inside because of his size.
He'd tried to do a good job of stretching his mate, but maybe
he should have done more.

"No. It's…good," Skylar panted as he continued to sit on

Remy's penis.

Remy had to take his hands off his mate's body and grip

the arms of the chair as his claws burst forth from the skin,
sinking deep into the material of the chair.

"Let me know when I can move."
Skylar did more than that. His mate had barely taken all

of  Remy's  cock  before  he  was  rising  up  on  his  knees  and
sinking  down  again.  The  vampire  was  trying  to  kill
him...there was no other explanation.

Remy couldn’t deal with the sharp pleasure and he had to

throw his head back against the headrest. "Feels so good,
mate."

Skylar went wild at his use of the word mate. The vampire

started  to  pick  up  speed  until  the  man  was  sliding  up  and
down his pole  almost too fast for Remy to watch. Vampire
speed.  He'd  never  seen  it  before,  but  it  was  fucking
awesome.

They moved together and Remy timed his movements to

the  superfast  pace  Skylar  was  setting.  Every  third  thrust
upwards from Skylar, Remy would drive upwards with his
hips,  plunging  even  deeper  inside  his  mate  as  Skylar  came
back down. Every time Skylar would shriek and hiss, Remy
knew his cock was pegging the little bundle of nerves inside
his  mate.  He  kept  that  rhythm  and  angle,  speeding  up  as
Skylar moved faster until they were both clawing for breath
and  sweat  dribbled  down  their  faces  and  chests.  The  salt

Blind Under the Moon

stung the bite on his pectoral above his heart, but the tiny
pain only added fuel to the fire building inside him.

"Skylar!" He shouted his mate's name and grabbed the

vampire’s head, smashing their lips together until he tasted
his own blood.

"Remy! Ahhhh!"
The extra stimulation was enough to push Skylar over the

edge, and seeing the white and silver fireworks exploding in
his  mate's  sightless  eyes  sent  him  hurtling  into  his  own
orgasm.  Hot,  wet  seed  bathed  his  chest  and  stomach  as  he
came deep inside his mate.

They were panting and completely spent, when his wolf

sleepily noticed a familiar scent. It wasn’t a threatening
scent, so his wolf settled again, content that they'd claimed
and marked their mate.

"Well, little brother, it looks like you have a lot of

explaining to do." His sister, Rosemary, chuckled from the
doorway.

"Fuck," he cursed, dropping his head onto Skylar's chest

as his lover shook from silent laughter.

SA Welsh

Chapter Five

nce he and Skylar were clean, fully clothed and Remy
had picked his dignity up off the floor, they joined his

siblings in the main living area. It had surprised him no end
that  the  vampire  was  taking  the  whole  situation  in  stride.
He'd  thought  vampires  were  quite  conservative  when  it
came  to  nudity  and  sex,  but  it  turned  out  he  was  the  one
dying  of  embarrassment  and  wishing  the  ground  would
swallow him up.

The only time Skylar had seemed uncomfortable with

their unexpected audience was when his brother had made a
comment about Remy having bulked up since the last time
they’d  met  up.  His  mate  had  taken  that  as  come-on  rather
than  brotherly  teasing  and  hissed  dangerously,  lunging  at
his  brother.  It  was  only  the  fact  that  Remy  was  still  inside
him that  that  he was  able to stop Skylar's halfhearted—but
still dangerous—attack.

While everyone was upstairs picking rooms, emptying his

kitchen and pantry, Remy had contacted the shifter council
and  notified  them  of  his  ascension  and  the  rank  contest  he
would  be  holding.  They  said  they  would  pass  the  word
along, even if the representative he spoke with did not think
it wise to look outside the existing pack members. Remy had
wanted  to  bring  up  the  topic  of  Skylar's  coven  visiting  his
lands,  but  something  told  him  that  wouldn’t  be  a  good
idea—he just felt something was hinky about the man.

Blind Under the Moon

"Relax, we didn’t see anything vital, the chair blocked all

your bits and pieces," Asher pointed out when Remy
growled at Zeke for the third time. His brother kept looking
at Skylar a little too long.

"It’s okay," Skylar said, running a hand up and down his

arm.

His wolf immediately calmed under the touch. But Remy

would definitely be keeping an eye on his brother.

Zeke just rolled his eyes at his look of suspicion, while his

sisters,  Rosemary  and  Saffron,  giggled.  Saffron,  Sage  and
Rosemary  were  jokingly  referred  to  as  the  condiment  litter
and  were  the  easiest  going  of  the  bunch,  but  Micah,  Zeke
and  Asher—the  first  litter—was  more  prone  to  anger
quickly. Asher and Micah were betas with packs over in the
next state, while Zeke was an enforcer for the same pack that
Saffron and Rosemary had joined when they'd mated wolves
from there. Their mates must be at home with the cubs. Sage
was a strangest brother to pin down. Remy had always gone
to  Sage  when  he  was  upset  or  needed  help,  but  he  didn’t
know an awful lot about his brother.

Sage must have felt his gaze on him, because his brother

turned to look right at him, then glanced away quickly, like
he didn’t want Remy to see too much.

Skylar leaned closer and whispered right in his ear.

"Later."

Remy agreed, so instead of nagging his brother for

answers he turned to Micah instead. "I'm guessing you have
something to say, since you have that constipated look."

Everyone laughed, even Micah, and his brother growled

playfully. "Yes, I do, Alpha runt," Micah retorted with a grin
when  the  siblings  laughed  again.  Being  together  with  his
brothers and sisters, laughing and joking felt nice. But it was
noticeable  that  he  didn’t  feel  itchy  around  his  brothers
anymore.  He'd  always  put  it  down  to  them  being  more

SA Welsh

dominant than him. It hadn't even occurred to him it might
be the other way around.

"Well by all means, share with the class," he answered

with a smile, wrapping his arm around his mate and getting
comfortable.  Skylar  cuddled  in  closer  to  his  left  side  and
lifted  a  hand  to  press  over  Remy's  mating  mark.  Remy
tightened  the  arm  around  his  mate  and  let  his  hand  drift
down to smooth over the vampire's ass.

Damn, Skylar had an amazing body. It was so hard,

toned, and perfect.

Skylar chuckled and kissed his neck.
"I will if you can keep your hands off your vampire for

five minutes."

"Mate," Skylar corrected.
Remy laughed, but did move his hand back up to Skylar's

waist so he wasn’t as tempted. "Sorry. I'll try to resist."

His brother shook his head and snorted in disgust, but

continued speaking anyway. "I wanted to talk to you about
the rank contest. My pack is fairly small many of the young
ones have gone to find work out of state since college, and
my alpha wants to move the pack into the mountains to live
off the land. I don't wish to follow. So I guess I'm asking if
you would mind if I entered the contest to fight for one of
the positions as beta.” Micah finished.

Everyone had gone quiet and they had all turned to look

at  him.  Remy  wasn’t  certain  how  he  felt  about  Micah
fighting  for  one  of  his  beta  positions.  Micah  was  a  strong
fighter and would more than likely win.

"I won't start out by playing favorites. It feels too

important to have a solid power base. And before you ask, I
don’t  know  why.  It  just  feels  important,"  Remy  said,
groaning  in  frustration  that  he  couldn't  explain  himself
better.  The  last  thing  he  wanted  was  for  his  brother  to  get

Blind Under the Moon

offended or for his sibling to think he wasn’t being serious
about this.

"What do you mean?" Asher had gone very still and

pinned Remy with a hard, intense stare.

Skylar sat up so Remy could lean his elbows on his knees

and frown. "I don’t know. I can't explain it in any other way
except that my wolf wants a solid inner circle, and soon too."

Asher stood up abruptly and stalked around the large

antique coffee table until his brother was right in front of
him. "Does it feel like there is something coming? Is that
why your wolf is pushing for a stronger pack?"

Skylar sat forward with him as he answered. "Yes. It feels

exactly like that."

Asher cursed and started pacing.
"What do you know?" Skylar stood up and stepped into

Asher's path. His brother had to stop short or walk into his
mate.

Asher growled in Skylar's face and Remy leapt to his feet

to put his brother on his ass. But his mate just held up a
hand to stop him. No matter what he did, Skylar knew about
it. He was never going to get away with anything.

"Be sure to remember that, wolf," his mate threw at him

before turning to Asher. "You will reveal what you know. I
will not tolerate any threat to my mate, even if that threat
comes from his kin."

Asher went quiet and just stared. "Well, your mate has

claws."

"Fangs, actually," Skylar shot back, flashing them.
Remy laughed at the look of shock on his siblings faces.

Only Micah had known that Skylar was a vampire—the
others must have just assumed he'd mated a human.

"You mated a vampire!" This shout came from one of his

sisters, but he wasn’t looking their way and they sounded
alike, so he couldn’t tell which one said it.

SA Welsh

"Yup," he said stupidly, knowing he was grinning like a

fool.

Skylar just lifted his chin and added "A blind vampire."
Asher visibly calmed, like Skylar wasn’t as much of a

threat.  Something  about  that  pissed  Remy  off  and  his  wolf
rose. "He isn’t weak, Asher. Vampires are faster," he paused
and Skylar took the hint, racing round to Asher's other side
so fast it looked like he'd just suddenly appeared. "And they
are  cunning,  they  wait  and  strike  when  their  prey  is
otherwise distracted," Remy said as he stepped closer to his
brother.

Skylar struck, kicking out Asher's legs from under him.
Remy reached out and caught one of Asher's flailing arms

to keep his brother from falling on his ass. Skylar looked
Asher right in the eye and spoke without emotion. "Because
my eyes are useless, my hearing and sense of smell are far
stronger that even a shifter’s nose."

Remy let go of Asher's arm and sat back down on the

chair, lifting his mate's hand to kiss the palm when Skylar
followed him and reached out to him.

"Point made," Asher conceded.
Remy inclined his head in acknowledgement.
"Now tell us what you know," Skylar prompted.
Asher  hesitated  for  a  minute,  "My  Alpha  is  from  a  long

line of Alphas and his grandfather was alive in the great
shifter wars—before we had a council—and he used to say
that when he took over for his father he was very young and
his wolf wouldn’t settle. He said his wolf was always on
edge and wanting to strengthen their pack. He added more
betas and strong shifters to the pack and his pack was one of
the few to survive the wars with minimal casualties," Asher
told them, starting to pace again. "Now that could well have
just been a coincidence that you were feeling something like
that, if you weren’t almost exactly like he described himself.

Blind Under the Moon

He said before he took over for his father he'd been easy
going and not that dominant, but a few months before he
took over his wolf started growing, getting stronger and less
able to bow to others."

Zeke cursed and sat forward on the blue three-seater sofa.

"Please tell me that's nothing like you, Remy," Zeke groaned,
running a hand over his short spikey hair.

Remy and his wolf were still taking in the information,

but he couldn’t deny that the story about summed up what
he'd been feeling lately. He just didn’t want to think of what
it could mean. "I can't do that, Zeke."

"Fuck," all of his siblings said at once.
Skylar put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Just

because you appear to be going through a similar thing
doesn't mean something bad is going to happen."

"Actually, it probably does," Sage said, speaking more

than one word for the first time since he'd arrived. "Before
our father died, he was trying to find out more information
about certain wolves being different, being special and able
to do certain things."

Remy froze and Skylar tensed next to him.
"What do you mean?" Micah asked.
"Do you remember when we were about ten? Me,

Rosemary  and  Saffron  were  in  the  kitchen  and  you,  Asher
and  Zeke  were  watching  us.  Remy  was  in  the  living  room
after  being  laid  down  for  his  nap.  Remy  was  only  a  few
weeks  old.  And  all  of  a  sudden,  we  heard  howling  from
Remy's crib. He was just lying there screaming, scared and
crying,  but  the  second  we  were  all  out  of  the  kitchen  the
oven blew up."

Zeke frowned. "I remember. Mom said the gas line was

faulty and it was only the fact that the kitchen was a build-
on while the living room was the original stone that saved
us."

SA Welsh

Sage nodded and continued. "But what you don’t know is

that  Dad had installed a camera in the house to make  sure
we  were  looking  after  the  condiments  and  Remy  properly.
Thirty  seconds  before  the  explosion,  Remy  shifted  and
started  howling,  then  shifted  back.  I  walked  in  on  him
watching it and demanded to know what was going on."

Micah glared and Sage. "Why are we just hearing about

this now, and what does that have to do with anything?"

"We aren’t supposed to be able to shift until puberty,"

Saffron said quietly.

"While that was a concern, that wasn’t the main problem.

We watched it over and over again. One minute Remy was
fast asleep and the next he was shifting. When we were all
coming to him he shifted back, then the kitchen blew up,"
Sage elaborated.

Zeke cut a hand through the air angrily. "Wait a minute.

Are you saying that Remy knew it was going to happen?"

"That can't be what he's saying. I was just a pup," Remy

argued.

Sage met his gaze and Remy shivered at the knowledge

he saw in his brother's eyes. "That's exactly what I'm saying.
Dad was still looking for information when he died. And I
took over when I was old enough. I just thought whatever it
was had been a fluke, since you never showed any other
signs and didn’t shift again until you hit fourteen."

Saffron stood up and came over to him, standing off

against Sage. "Please tell me you're kidding. How could you
not tell us or Remy when he was older?"

Sage shook his head and looked miserable for a split

second before he hid behind the familiar aloof mask.

"Is that why you encouraged me to come to you about

anything? So you could get more information on me?" Remy
couldn’t believe how betrayed he felt.

Everyone was lying to him, keeping things from him.

Blind Under the Moon

"We'll figure out it." Skylar tried to comfort him, but all

Remy  could  see  was  that  the  people  he  thought  he  could
trust  the  most  had  betrayed  him.  He  took  hold  of  Skylar's
hand  and  twined  their  fingers  together  as  he  tried  to  think
through  the  hurt.  "They  didn’t  mean  it  as  a  betrayal.”
Skylar's  voice  settled  his  wolf  somewhat,  but  Remy  had
enough anger coming from his human half to make up the
difference.

"No! I swear it wasn’t. I wanted to know if you were

having  feelings  again,  but—"  Sage  started,  but  went  quiet
when  Remy  growled  at  him.  It  wasn’t  a  playful  growl  or
even  a  challenging  growl.  This  was  a  full  on  angry  wolf
growl.

"Mom knew I was an alpha and kept it from me and that

was bad enough, but to know my brother—you, Sage—were
keeping something this big from me...I don’t know what to
do with that." Remy shook his head and tried to push the
anger to the back on his mind. He wouldn’t be any good to
anyone if he let himself dwell on things right now.

"I don’t want to know and apparently I don’t have time to

think about how I feel about this, either. I told the council I
was holding the rank contest the day after tomorrow. That
should be enough time for other shifters to hear about it and
make their way here," Remy said, thinking aloud. "I can't do
anything more about that now, so we shelve that and move
on to the next problem. Skylar, how long will it take for your
coven to get here?"

His mate straightened as Remy addressed him, but kept

hold  of  his  hand.  "My  coven  members  should  be  here
anytime  from  now.  Vampires  can  travel  much  faster  than
other paranormal beings," Skylar added with a smug  smile
when Remy squeezed his hand and made a noise of surprise.
"In  fact,  I  believe  Jake  and  the  others  are  arriving  as  we
speak,” Skylar corrected with another smile.

SA Welsh

"Jake the jackal?"
Skylar's head snapped to face him and the beautiful eyes

narrowed. "Yes. Jake Jackson the jackal shifter. Is there
something funny about that?"

Remy managed to smother the surprised laugh, but knew

he didn’t get away with it when his vampire popped him
one in the ribs. "I'm sorry. But come on," He pleaded.

Skylar just shook his head and sighed as if exasperated,

but  Remy  scented  the  amusement  there.  "Go  let  them  in
then,"  he  said.  For  a  shifter  to  allow  someone,  especially  a
new  mate,  to  not  only  greet  guests  first,  but  to  grant  them
entrance to his home alone showed a great deal of trust and
he  smelled  his  siblings’  shock  as  well  as  Skylar's.  As  an
alpha,  it  also  showed that  his  mate  spoke  for  him  and  that
Skylar would was his equal in every way.

Instead of going to the door to let in the three vampires

and the jackal shifter he could hear and smell waiting
politely outside his house, Skylar asked, "Are you sure?"

"Your coven is like your pack, right?"
His mate nodded. "Yes. They are my family."
"Then they are welcome in my home," Remy announced.

He  didn’t  think  Skylar  would  bring  anyone  into  his  home
that  would  be  a  threat  to  him  or  his  pack.  But  he  wasn’t  a
fool. Remy would trust them until they proved he shouldn’t.
It  wasn’t  worth  it  to  see  how  happy  Skylar  was.  The  last
thing he wanted was to make his mate feel torn or trapped.
If  he  could  foster  good  relations  between  his  pack  and
Skylar's coven, then perhaps a safe passage treaty could be
established  and  his  mate  would  be  able  to  visit  his  family
and have them come visit him.

Skylar jumped up and all but ran to the door. The more

comfortable Skylar became around him, the more Remy
could see his mate flourishing and coming out of his formal
shell.

Blind Under the Moon

"Was that a good idea, Rems?" Asher asked him,

sounding concerned and worried.

It was in a paranormal's nature to distrust other

paranormal  races,  but  Remy  didn’t  want  to  lead  that  way.
He'd always thought the way they were instantly distrustful
about  anything  outside  what  they  were  familiar  with
crippled  them.  If  they  wanted  to  acknowledge  that  they
were  part  of  this  world,  then  they  needed  to  experience  it
instead  of  just  staying  in  their  own  little  corner  of  it.  They
needed to move forward, and if what Sage had said could be
believed, then Remy needed to put more stock in his feelings.

"Feels right," he said, looking at his siblings and showing

them  he  wouldn’t  be  swayed.  Asher  held  his  hands  up  in
surrender.  "While  we've  got  a  few  minutes,  I  want  to  say
something. Micah, I've realized that I may have come across
as a little off when you said you planned to enter the rank
contest.  I  know  you're  a  good  fighter  and  I  would  be
honored if you win a place as one of my betas." It had been
bothering  him  and  sort  of  festering  underneath  all  of  the
other  revelations.  He  didn’t  want  Micah  to  think  he
wouldn’t want him in his inner circle.

Micah's cheeks went a little pink. He'd genuinely made

his big brother blush and duck his head like a schoolgirl.
"Thank you, ru-Remy."

His other brothers made gagging noises while his sisters

laughed and talked together about how cute they were.
Urgh. His siblings were going to be the death of him. "Does
that mean any of us can jump ship and come home?" Asher
sounded almost hopeful. But like Micah, Asher was a beta
for another pack. Why wouldn’t he be happy there?

"You all have a place here if you want it," he answered

honestly.

To be honest, his wolf would love to his have family

closer to him. He was always worrying about them, whether

SA Welsh

they  were  okay.  Sage  and  Asher  looked  like  they  were
seriously  considering  the  offer.  But  understandably,  his
sisters and Zeke weren’t, since they had built a life with their
mates  and  pups  and  Zeke  stayed  with  them  like  a  typical
overprotective big brother.

Hearing Skylar's voice coming closer, Remy stood and

waited  to  greet  his  guests.  Thankfully,  his  sibling  followed
suit,  even  if  his  brothers  did  argue  quietly  about  the  girls
needing  to  get  behind  them  while  his  sisters  ignored  them
completely.  It  was  like  an  episode  of  the  Simpsons.  What  a
great way to make a first impression.

"Quit it," he hissed out of the side of his mouth.
Skylar came into the room immediately followed by three

vampires  that  his  wolf  instantly  pegged  as  Elders.
Interesting.  He  knew  Skylar  was  around  the  hundred  and
fifty mark even though he hadn't been able to get a definite
age out of his mate. But he would one way or the other. He
knew vampires didn’t tend to do birthdays, but he planned
to  bring  his  lover  into  the  great  tradition.  Birthday
spankings,  naked  birthday  weekend,  whipped  cream
playtime  and  fantasies.  Remy  had  never  done  any  of  that,
but he was damn well going to try his best to work through
the  list  and  a  hundred  other  things  with  the  handsome
vampire that made his pulse race and his wolf howl.

Surprisingly, Skylar didn’t stay with the other vampires,

but came over to stand at Remy’s side instead. It pleased his
wolf so much Remy was glad he was in his human shape,
because otherwise he'd be sitting at Skylar's feet with a
waggy tail like a lovesick puppy.

The jackal shifter was easy to spot—a much shorter and

slimmer frame, with the perhaps stereotypical emo look. The
vampires, on the other hand, were all dressed in designer
suits with not a hair out of place. They looked like they were
going to a James Bond convention.

Blind Under the Moon

Remy debated for about three seconds, then offered his

hand out to the vampire Elder. It was customary to make the
visiting paranormal bow and submit to the rule of the local
alpha or leader whose territory they were in. But two of the
vampires and the jackal shifter obviously meant a lot to
Skylar as his mate hugged them briefly.

The Elders looked momentarily shocked, but recovered

quickly.  They  each  shook  his  hand  in  turn,  but  the  jackal
shifter  just  took  a  step  back  and  bared  his  neck  in
submission.  Normally  all  that  would  be  required  from  a
visiting  submissive  shifter  would  be  a  simple  head  tilt,  but
the jackal was almost bent backwards and the scent of fear
coming  off  him  made  Remy's  wolf  angry.  To  be  this  afraid
and  offer  that  much  submission  meant  the  jackal  had  been
abused by someone dominant.

The Elder vampires stepped forward, misinterpreting his

growl for a move of aggression. Remy stepped around them
and moved forward until he was in front of the terrified
jackal shifter. Very slowly, he touched his hand to the man's
neck to show he accepted the submission, then backed up
until he was back by his mate.

"My mate has told me you might be able to help us

remedy the problem of the smoke we've been inhaling,
Jake," Remy said, hoping to break the tension.

"Yes, sir," Jake answered in a quiet voice as he stood up

straight and the scent of fear decreased. The vampires
visibly relaxed.

"Well then, I would like to get started as soon as possible.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help or if
you want anything." He saw Jake shuffling and wondered if
maybe he could make it a bit easier on the young-looking
shifter. "Or if you would be more comfortable, you could tell
my mate," he offered.

SA Welsh

Skylar put an arm around him and Remy smelled his

mate's pleasure at being included.

"It's okay, Jake. Remy is my Mon âme soeur sang."
Jake's eyes widened almost comically. But the most

surprising reaction came from the Elder vampires. "Skylar, is
this true?"

His mate grinned and nodded enthusiastically. "I knew

the  minute  I  tasted  him.  He  healed  me.  He  completes  me,"
Skylar  said  like  it  was  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world.
Remy's  wolf  barely  contained  his  excitement.  As  it  was,  he
had to subtly bend  his leg and stand with  his hands in  his
pockets  to  hide  the  hard-on  growing  behind  his  jeans.  His
brothers and sisters snickered behind him and he discretely
flipped them off behind his back.

"How? No true matches have been found for far too long."
"I don’t know how, Dimitri. That’s another reason why

we wanted to meet—"

Dimitri shot a look towards him. "We?"
"Yes, we. Remy has offered to help any way he can. My

wolf  is  very  dedicated  to  pack  and  family.  And  I  told  him
my  coven  is  mine,"  Skylar  explained,  sounding  proud.  The
look  on  his  face  let  Remy  know  his  mate  was  telling  the
vampires to play nice.

One of the other two vampires recovered from the veiled

chastisement.  "How…nice  of  him.  I'm  afraid  we  seem  to
have forgotten our manners in the journey here. I am Lavi,
and  this  to  my  left  is  Van.  Thank  you  for  your  generosity
and  hospitality,"  Lavi  said  smoothly,  with  a  flourish  of  his
hand and a little bow.

Strange. Polite…but strange. "You're welcome."
He noticed Jake smile before the shifter hid behind his

long black hair. There was something he was missing here.
But what? The names, maybe?

"Is Lavi and Van short for something?"

Blind Under the Moon

Skylar quickly looked away from him and he heard the

smothered snort and scented the vampires' amusement. "A
story for another time." Lavi dodged the question skillfully.

Remy's need to know just about quadrupled, but he

forced himself not to nag for an answer. He wasn’t some
damn cat who would obsess about not knowing. Nope. No
way.

Damn, he really wanted to know.
Skylar laughed. Dammit, he'd been caught out.
"I'll tell you later," Skylar whispered in his ear.
Jake seemed like he was going to say something, but then

looked  past  him,  saw  his  siblings,  and  closed  his  mouth,
looking  like  he  wanted  to  blend  into  the  background.  "The
wolves behind me are my brothers and sisters. Micah, Asher,
Zeke, Sage, Saffron and Rosemary," he rattled off, turning to
point to each sibling in turn.

"Are you really going to let other shifters join your pack?"

The question was so quiet Remy almost didn’t hear it. He
would ask how Jake had heard about it, but he guessed the
shifter had heard along the grape vine.

Remy had a feeling the shifter was feeling him out.

Jackals  weren’t  known  for  their  great  pack  drive.  But
submissive  shifters  in  general  usually  preferred  to  be  in  a
pack structure. He couldn’t imagine the vampires satisfying
the animals’ need to be with others when they ran free. "Yes,
I  am.  I  want  a  strong  pack,  but  I  won't  turn  away  anyone
without good reason."

The jackal nodded and Remy knew the man was filing the

bit of information away. He wasn’t certain the little jackal
was going to work up the courage to ask to join his pack, but
his wolf wouldn’t be surprised if they were running with a
jackal on the next pack run.

"I don’t mean to break up the scintillating conversation,

but can we get back to the fact that Skylar has found his one

SA Welsh

and only when no other has for decades?" This came from
Dimitri.

Van looked peeved, but all the same turned to Skylar and

his expression softened. "Do you know why? Were you able
to find out anything before the previous alpha captured
you?"

Skylar sent him a concerned look when he growled

dangerously. The memory of his mate chained to the table,
bloody and broken was still far too fresh and was probably
why his wolf was so close to the surface and was growling at
every little thing. "I was tracking rumors that said the alpha
knew something about a poison that was affecting vampire
senses. I wasn’t able to get anything out of him before he…"

"Before he what?" Dimitri sounded impatient and not at

all concerned with any trauma Skylar might be suffering or
struggling with.

"He pulled put my mate's fangs and bloodied his face,

along with beating him and taunting him with other
tortures," Remy forced out between clenched teeth as his
claws grew and dug into his palms while his fists clenched.
Micah and Asher immediately came to stand with him. They
didn’t say anything or do anything else, but they were there.
And clearly, they made a threatening picture as Dimitri lost
his arrogance and turned wary.

"He's fine. Skylar looks the same as when he left," the

vampire defended, looking to Van and Lavi for support, but
they gave none.

"You were informed of the situation before we left," the

ever-polite Lavi pointed out. The other Elder vampire
sounded disappointed, with an edge of anger in his voice.

Dimitri blustered and gestured to Skylar with a hand.

"Look at him. He's fine. Clearly the information was
wrong…or over-exaggerated." The comment hung in the air
for a moment before Remy saw red and advanced on the

Blind Under the Moon

Elder vampire, his two brothers behind him. His other two
brothers would be guarding his sisters in case anything
kicked off.

Before Remy could get the satisfaction of punching the ass

in the face, Skylar appeared in front of him and placed a firm
hand on his chest. "Don’t, please."

"I won't have him accusing you of lying in our house," he

said,  not  taking  his  eyes  of  the  now  retreating  vampire.
Dimitri's  eyes  had  bled  to  red  and  Remy's  wolf  was  more
than up for the challenge of beating the other man's ass into
the carpet.

And given the answering growls from Micah and Asher,

his brothers were, too.

"Do you have that one family member that you don’t

particularly like, one that’s pretty much a dick that you can't
stand?"

Remy didn’t want to agree. He certainly didn’t want to

look away before the vampire did. But Dimitri dropped his
eyes and stepped back when he realized he would be on his
own.

"Yes," he said grudgingly when Skylar stared at him

expecting an answer.

"Well, he's that for me. He is still part of my coven

though," Skylar explained slowly  before turning  to Dimitri.
"And  as  for  you—when  have  I  ever  ever  exaggerated
anything  in  a  report?  I  was  only  hours  from  an  agonizing
death when my Mon âme soeur sang cut his vein open and
poured  his  blood  down  my  throat  because  my  fangs  were
gone.  It  was  only  because  his  blood  was  filled  with  his
newfound  power  as  an  extraordinarily  strong  alpha  that  I
not only survived, but healed as well. So Elder or not, if you
ever seek to devalue what my mate has given me, I will rip
out your throat and willingly submit to coven punishment."

SA Welsh

"Of which there would be none," Van declared with a look

of disgust aimed at Dimitri.

Remy heard Rosemary whisper, "He's loyal." He also

heard Sage answer in another whisper, "I like him." Then
Zeke and Saffron started discussing how long they thought
Dimitri would last in a fight and putting down bets.

Dimitri appeared suitably put in his place. Whether it was

from the abject dismissal of his siblings or the other vampire
Elders essentially cutting ties, he wasn’t sure.

Skylar stood in front of Remy, probably because his mate

still didn’t trust him not to take a snap at Dimitri if the
vampire wandered too close. His mate already knew him too
well. It was funny when he glanced at Micah, then at Asher
and saw expressions of amusement on their faces as they
were thinking along the same lines as him.

"Fine. No clawing the guests," he huffed grumpily.
The fact that Skylar just reached back and patted his

stomach just made him feel even more like a house pet. His
wolf wasn’t thrilled with the treatment.

"Thank you dear," Skylar said, and he could hear his mate

trying not to laugh.

Disgusted with it all, Remy changed the subject back to

the original topic. "Anyway. Assuming we take the poison
rumors and run with it, why would Skylar be different?
What's different about you, love?"

"Apart from my amazingly firm ass?"
The comment surprised him so much he snorted.
"It is amazingly firm," he agreed as groped the body part

in question. "But that's not what I meant."

"He's blind." Dimitri pointed out redundantly.
Van shielded the jerk before Remy could make it around

his mate. "Before you hit him, he may have uncovered a
point. Skylar is blind, and because of that, his body cannot
survive on synthetic blood like most of our race. We moved

Blind Under the Moon

to the synthetic formula ten years ago as it was safer and
more easily monitored, after the year two thousand outbreak
of blood dopers that killed a few vampires with transference
of a drug paranormals were susceptible to."

"But then if someone was able to somehow get past all the

safeguards, then the synthetic blood would effectively be the
best way to attack vampires as an entire race.” Remy
realized out loud.

"There must be other vampires that are incompatible with

synthetic  blood,"  Van  countered,  shaking  his  head  as  if
dismissing  the  idea.  "And  it  doesn’t  account  for  it  being
decades  plural  since  a  soul  mate  was  found.  The  time  lines
don’t match."

"They may have simply not yet come across their mate.

That’s  why  we  haven’t  noticed  the  link—because  there
wasn’t  a  pattern,"  Lavi  answered.  "Plus,  just  because  we
officially  moved  to  synthetic  blood  only  ten  years  ago,  we
were  experimenting  and  weaning  most  of  us  Elders  onto
that  long  before  then,  as  the  formulas  were  advanced  and
perfected."

"I can test Skylar's blood and compare it with others from

the  coven  that  do  and  do  not  drink  synthetic  blood,"  Jake
said  excitedly.  "It  might  be  a  formula  targeting  the  senses
required  to  recognize  a  mate  while  simultaneously  causing
Elders to go into blood lust."

Jake's gaze seemed to stray to Sage every few minutes.

Interesting.  "Sage,  would  you  mind  showing  Jake  to  the
study?  I  know  you've  already  been  snooping,"  Remy  said,
managing not to sound bitchy. Go him.

Sage, to his credit ducked his head and looked dutifully

apologetic. "I don’t mind." His brother came forward. Remy
hadn't forgiven him yet, though he guessed he could sort of
see why Sage did it. If he was in the same situation, then he
might have done the same. But emotions weren’t rational

SA Welsh

and the little kid in him who'd worshipped Sage was still
hurt. But they'd sort it out somehow.

The jackal shot him a surprised, almost frightened look.

"It's okay. Sage will take care of you. Do you need anything
before you start?" Smelling fear coming from the little shifter
didn’t do anything to calm his wolf who still wanted to bite
Dimitri and was annoyed at not being allowed to.

"Pizza?"
The sheer hopefulness in the jackal's voice made him

smile.

"Sure. I'll order a load now." Remy spotted his mate

smiling but ignored it. He knew Skylar was thinking he was
a  pushover,  but  Jake  just  looked  so  happy  now.  The  pizza
place  he  had  on  his  cell  speed  dial  delivered  quickly  and
made the best crust outside of his mother's homemade base.

Skylar passed him his phone and Remy quickly pressed

the button. The call connected and he ordered fourteen
pizzas with everything. Shifters ate a lot. Speaking of which
"Don’t take this the wrong way…but do you guys eat
pizza?"

The Elder vampires gave him a weird look and Skylar

patted him on the head. "Yes dear," Skylar praised like he'd
just learned to roll over.

He changed the order to sixteen pizzas and said he'd add

a large tip if they could get it delivered in the next half hour.
Ending the call, he poked Skylar sharply in the ribs. "Don’t
you yes dear me. It was a valid question."

"It was a cute question." Even though Skylar couldn’t see

him, his wolf wanted to strut and show their mate that he
wasn’t some little lap dog—he was a goddamn wolf.

"You might not like pizza," Remy said. He was not being

petulant.

Blind Under the Moon

"That’s not what you were asking though. You were

really trying to find out if vampires ate people food," Skylar
argued back, using air quotes.

Making a face, Remy tried to ignore his brothers laughing

their  asses  off  next  to  them  and  the  other  vampires  failing
miserably  to  fade  into  the  background.  Skylar  just  kept
looking at him in that infuriatingly patronizing way.

"Stop it."
"See, Jake. Even annoyed, my alpha has perfect control

and would never hurt me," Skylar told the now shaking
jackal shifter.

That was when Remy could have slapped his forehead.

Jake's fear hadn't really been of him, but rather for Skylar.

"But he's so big, my jackal can see the wolf inside him."
Skylar went over to the scared shifter and put an arm

around the man's shoulders.

"Yes, he is. He is an alpha, and a very powerful one, but

Remington won't ever hurt me like you're scared of," Skylar
whispered into the jackal's ear. "And neither will his family."

Jake's fear ebbed away and Remy realized just how much

nervous energy the shifter had been putting out once it was
gone. "Okay. I still want pizza, though. And I need a blood
sample," Jake reminded. The shifter produced a glass test
tube seemingly from nowhere.

Was Remy the only one who didn’t know what just

happened?

Skylar bit his finger and bled into the tube. Twisting

around,  Remy  gave  Micah  and  Asher  a  look  of  confusion.
They  shrugged  back.  So  he  wasn’t  alone,  then.  Rosemary
dodged around Zeke and smacked Remy on the back of the
head lightly like she used to do when he was little and tried
to steal cookies.

"Rose," he warned.

SA Welsh

"Just because you're a big bad alpha now doesn’t mean I

lose the rights as big sister to mess with you." Big sister
equals pain in the ass.

"Yes it does," he whined, feeling like he'd just been told

Santa wasn’t real.

"No dice, short stuff. Jake here was clearly scared you

were going to hurt his friend and your mate—clearly the
smart one in the relationship—showed him that even when
you’re riled, your wolf wouldn’t ever hurt him." Rose looked
so smug the only rational and adult thing left to do was to
make a face and poke his tongue out at her.

"Soooo mature. I'm getting teary eyed by how grown up

you are," she choked out sarcastically and waved her face as
if overcome by tears.

"This is quite peculiar," Van observed.
"Yes. I do not remember shifters being quite so fun to

observe before."

Snarling, he faced the vampires and growled, but Skylar

just came up to him and kissed him right on the lips. He was
pulled into the kiss as his mate's hands wound around his
neck—then Remy didn’t even care that his siblings were
laughing at him or the other vampires were watching them
like a bug under the microscope.

"Soooo, we're going to go wait for the pizza in the kitchen

while you two eat face," Zeke said while making retching
noises.

Remy couldn’t care less. He skimmed his hands down

Skylar's back and got a handful of firm cheek in each hand.
He lifted and Skylar took pity on him. Skylar's legs wrapped
around his waist and Remy walked forwards until he had
his mate pressed against the wall.

"You know…wolves can go all night with the right

motivation." Remy kissed his way down Skylar's neck and
bit down on the warm skin with his blunt human teeth.

Blind Under the Moon

"And you definitely deserve some kind of punishment after
that stunt you pulled."

Skylar's head tipped back to give him more access. "Shou-

shouldn’t a punishment be something I won't enjoy?"

Licking a path along his vampire's jaw Remy chuckled

deeply and whispered in Skylar's ear. "I won't tell if you
won't." He ground his groin against Skylar's. "We need to
get rid of these clothes."

"No problem." Skylar moaned and moved so fast Remy

could barely track him. In barely the time it took for his body
to  take  in  a  breath  and  let  it  out  Remy  found  himself
hanging out of his jeans, which had been ripped open, and
his  chest  exposed  with  the  remains  of  his  shirt  hanging  in
strips.  The  borrowed  clothes  Skylar  wore  were  also  ruined
and  he  almost  started  to  weep  when  he  realized  their  bare
skin was touching from chest to the really good parts.

Again, Skylar picked up on his thoughts and laughed.

"You're so unique. I have never laughed this much with
anyone before."

"That's because none of the people in your past were your

Mon  âme  soeur  sang,"  he  said  in  a  perfect  imitation  of  the
accent  applied  to  the  title.  Remy  knew  he'd  gotten  it  right
when the beautiful blue eyes staring back at him faded and
blood red eyes looked lustfully at him instead.

"Fuck me. Now," Skylar demanded. Skylar's fangs were

so long Remy wondered how his mate could even talk.

"As my mate commands." It was a cheesy line, but right

then Remy didn’t have the brainpower to think of anything
intellectual. All he could think of was getting inside Skylar's
body as soon as possible before his own body combusted
with lustful energy.

It was a difficult position. But he managed to reach under

Skylar's ass and eased a finger into this mate's welcoming
hole. The guardian muscle clenched around him and let him

SA Welsh

add another finger. Self-control was like diamond dust and
by the time he managed to fit a third and a fourth finger,
awkwardly thrusting them in and out of Skylar's ass, Remy
was running on empty.

Finally, after what seemed like a torturing eternity, Remy

was  able  to  line  up  and  slowly  sink  into  Skylar's  heat.  The
vampire's heels dug into the cheeks of his ass. Just as Remy
breathed  a  sigh  of  relief  when  he  was  fully  seated,  Skylar
struck his vein again.

"Holy crap!"
Remy cried out and planted his hands on the wall on

either side of Skylar. He spread his legs a little, too. With the
firmer  stance  and  his  mate  attached  to  him,  Remy's  hips
started  thrusting  madly.  The  rhythm  was  far  too  fast  to  be
called  sensual,  but  it  felt  like  it  was  in  slow  motion  as  his
heart  matched  the  lazy  pulls  and  swallows  of  his  blood.  It
was heaven.

Blind Under the Moon

Chapter Six

h my god, I'm blind. I am actually going to have to
bleach my eyeballs to get that image out of my mind.

What is wrong with you?" Rylan's shrill dramatics dragged
Remy kicking and screaming out of his floaty afterglow.

"Not a damn thing," Skylar slurred, sounding a little

drunk.

"Hey! Don’t you think it's a bit insensitive to be making

blind jokes?"

Rylan shuddered theatrically when Skylar placed a

sloppy kiss on Remy’s neck and made a yummy noise.

"Don’t be so oversensitive. If Skylar is offended, then I'll

apologize."

Remy growled and went to lay into his friend when the

doorbell rang. Saved by the bell. "Oh just shut up and go pay
for the pizza. There's money in the Happy Feet mug on the
side table," he instructed as he eased out of Skylar's ass. The
temptation to just thrust back in whether his best friend was
watching or not was almost irresistible.

"Don't even think about it. One exhibitionist experience a

day is my limit. Plus you promised me pizza." Skylar
moaned as Remy let him stand on wobbly legs.

Rylan snorted and made a lovely puking noise. "I don't

know what I'm more disgusted by, the sight of your naked
ass or your disturbing fascination with dancing, singing
penguins." His friend stalked out of the room, but Remy just
laughed. If Rylan was being this dramatic, then he was all

SA Welsh

right. The spat  with Micah hadn't kept him down for long.
Remy  just  hoped  Rylan  took  the  news  that  Micah  would
more  than  likely  be  taking  one  of  the  spots  as  his  beta  as
well. Yeah, that just wasn't going to happen. Maybe he could
keep Rylan distracted with the penguin mug.

Remy took Skylar's hand and ran for it.
"Where we going?" Skylar sounded thoroughly

scandalized as they ran through his house naked, their
ripped clothing hanging off their body. Remy held his
lover’s hand and led them through the house.

"To get dressed. Again." Remy laughed as they got to his

bedroom and he shut the door behind them. "We really need
to stop ruining clothes like this, or it's going to get
expensive."

Skylar snorted, an undignified sound coming from his

put-together  and  suave  mate.  That's  when  he  noticed  a
purple  suede  suitcase  sitting  on  his  bed.  "Now  I've got  my
own  clothes,  you  better  not  be  so  much  as  look  at  them
threateningly."  Somehow,  Skylar  knew  exactly  where  the
suitcase was and Remy and his wolf watched in fascination
and  pride  at  the  smooth  confidence  with  which  his  mate
moved, opening the suitcase and sorting out the clothes into
piles. All the items were black, white or grey with a few dark
purple and red shirts and socks. And none of the items were
off  the  rack,  either.  Remy  could  see  Versace,  Vivien
Westwood and Alexander McQueen.

"You've got a thing for nice things, I see," he pointed out

with amusement. Formal suits weren't really his thing, apart
from the ones he was made to wear to the premiers of the
films he worked on. But he had to admit the McQueen three-
piece black suit was pretty nice.

"I like to look good. And the fabrics feel nice on my skin.

That's one of the things that changed since my vision was
taken from me in an accident when I was human. Colors feel

Blind Under the Moon

different, too. Black satin and purple suede are two of my
favorites," Skylar told him as he ran fingers over the
different textured fabrics with a faraway smile.

Remy couldn't resist going over to his vampire and

winding his arms around his waist. "What do I feel like?"

The vampire's smile widened and showed just the

slightest tip of fang, and he could honestly say he had never
seen anything as sexy in all his life. "You feel like satin when
you  fuck  me  and  your  cock  splits  me  in  half,  but  when
you're  wrapped  around  me  like  this  your  arms  feel  strong
and  safe  while  at  the  same  time  your  hair  feels  like  a
tantalizing  mix  between  suede  and  fur."  Remy  could  hear
the smile in his mate's tone. Skylar's hand ran up and down
over his skin slowly. "It is quite unlike anything I have ever
felt."

This type of closeness with his lover was completely new

for him. Technically, he'd never actually had a lover before.
He'd only had hookups and a friend-with-benefits without
the friendship. "I like that you like how I feel. Do you want
to touch my wolf?"

Skylar froze in his arms. Shifters hardly ever let anyone

touch  them  when  they  were  shifted,  not  even  family  or
lovers. It was their custom to reserve that honor and trust for
true mates, but even then, it wasn't too common. In a way,
Remy  was  glad  that  his  vampire  mate  apparently  knew
enough about shifters to recognize how big a deal his offer
was.  Truthfully,  Remy  hadn't  thought  it  through  before
opening his mouth, but his wolf wanted their mate to know
all  of  him.  Everything  in  his  life  was  about  to  get  turned
upside down. Skylar was the only thing he could cling to, to
keep  his  feet  on  the  ground.  And  he  didn't  want  to  take
without giving something in return.

"That is the sweetest thing. I would be most honored if

you would let me touch your wolf," Skylar answered with a

SA Welsh

reverent  tone.  The  vampire  turned  in  his  arms  and  stole  a
quick  kiss  before  jumping  onto  the  bed  and  sitting  there
bouncing  a  little  on  the  springy  mattress  like  a  kid  who'd
just been told he was going to Disney Land.

"Are you a little excited?" Remy was teasing, but seeing

the adorable blush rise on Skylar's sharp cheek bones made
him  groan  as  his  dick  started  to  get  hard  again.  After  the
way he'd come so hard downstairs he was surprised he had
enough brainpower to work his legs. "Stop distracting me or
you'll  be  getting  more  than  just  meeting  my  wolf,  you
naughty vampire mate."

Remy was joking of course. He might one day like to hunt

down and make love to Skylar under the full moon in his
new alpha form, but wolfie sex was never something he
wanted to explore.

"Maybe." What? The way Skylar said it made Remy tense.
Which thing was Skylar saying maybe too? The playful

expression  didn't  clear  anything  up  either.  Obviously
sensing  his  confusion  and  split  second  of  panic,  Skylar
grinned  widely,  displaying  and  licking  those  sharp  fangs
slowly.

"You're trouble," Remy sighed. Before he could drive

himself into a lustful frenzy, he initiated his shift.

In no more than a few seconds, Remy was standing in

front of his mate on four legs, his wolf shaking the last strips
of  clothes  off  him.  All  of  his  senses  were  in  overdrive.  He
could  smell  Skylar’s  scent  much  more  deeply  and  it  sank
right into his core, filling him up until he was edging closer
to the bed, where his mate still sat and whined.

"That was quick," Skylar said breathlessly, sounding

excited.

Remy barked softly.
"Is it safe to come closer to you?"

Blind Under the Moon

He barked again and whined a little at the thought of his

mate touching his fur.

A strangled groan left his vampire mate and the look of

innocent pleasure and excitement on Skylar's face was
exquisite.

There was really nothing he could do to stop his wolf

from  bounding  over  to  the  bed,  jumping  onto  it,  knocking
Skylar  over  so  he  could  essentially  pin  the vampire.  Skylar
burst out laughing, the sound free and joyous.

Since Skylar had removed the scraps of fabric that used to

be his clothes,  all that salty pale  skin was  bared for him to
taste.  So  taste  he  did.  As  he  licked  the  salty-surface  of
Skylar's  neck,  his  vampire  just  shrieked  and  laughed  even
harder, wiggling and try to get away. But he was too big and
heavy for Skylar to move him while he was giggling and his
wolf was having too much fun to get off.

Happiness has a lovely scent but it was slightly different

for everyone. Skylar smelled like a vanilla sponge baking in
the oven. And he definitely wanted to take a bite.

Remy wanted to lick the sexy vampire all over. But he

couldn't do that in his wolf shape. Well, he could, but there
would be a major ick factor that Remy wasn't prepared to
explore.

"No, not yet! Please," Skylar asked as Remy moved off

him and was about to initiate his shift back to human.

The panic from moments ago when Skylar was teasing

returned.

Skylar smacking him on the snout was a complete

surprise. "Don't be stupid. I just want to feel you a bit more.
So sit like a good little doggy and let me pet you," Skylar
huffed, still laughing and wiping his licky kisses away.

After giving Skylar an indignant snort, he jumped off the

bed and sat down in front of it. Again, Remy wouldn’t know

SA Welsh

his mate couldn’t see by how well he moved around like he
knew where Remy was.

"It's practice," Skylar said with a smile and a shrug as he

gracefully knelt beside him. As a man, Remy was the same
height as Skylar, if much wider and bulkier. But in his wolf
form his head came up to Skylar's shoulder level. He'd
grown again. Something about that fact dampened the joy at
having Skylar's hands beginning to run over his fur. "It'll be
okay, Mon âme soeur sang."

Remy leant into the warmth of his mate and tried to shut

everything else out. He was managing to get by trusting his
instincts and his wolf, but he was kidding himself if he had
thought  this  was  going  to  be  easy.  He  had  no  idea  what  it
took to be an alpha in the every day.  How the hell  was he
going to protect everyone, root out the threats he knew were
still part of the pack, and help his mate's coven? How could
he  do  all that  and  be this  big  bad  alpha  that  everyone  was
looking  to  him  to  be  because  he  could  shift  into  the  third
form?  And  apparently  he  was  going  to  be  a  massive  wolf,
too, because he had already been bigger than everyone else
in  the  pack  before  he'd  fought  Trevor,  but  now  he  even
would have made Trevor look small.

Remy thought about the changes and stretched, feeling

the new strength, and he felt better, like he had more room
in himself, but his wolf still didn’t seem to be fully satisfied.
Did that mean he wasn’t done growing?

Skylar's hands kept running through and drawing

patterns  in  his  fur  and  eventually  the  comforting  motions
soothed  him  and  he  calmed  down.  It  was  just  so  much
pressure.

"One thing at a time. Ask your brothers Micah and Asher

to help you. They know what's expected of an alpha and all
the responsibilities you're worried about. If they can fight
well enough to prove their worth as betas, they could be

SA Welsh

Chapter Seven

t was the day of the rank contest and Remy was on edge.
His wolf was pacing in his mind, anticipating, waiting.

There were a dozen strong shifters that had turned up in the
forest  clearing  Rylan  had  suggested  they  use  for  the  rank
fights.  Micah  and  Asher  were  on  edge  too,  but  he  didn’t
think it was because they were nervous about the fight.

Usually the rest of the pack watched these sorts of rank

contests  and  no  outsiders  were  invited,  but  Remy  was
breaking  all  sorts  of  assumed  customs  and  traditions.  The
mandatory  pack  run  had  gone  well,  all  things  considered,
but  it  revealed  he  had  a  lot  of  doubters  in  his  pack  who
didn’t intend to change their views. Perhaps it would bring
his pack into the 21

century.

It was only himself, Skylar, Rylan, his brothers and a few

of the stronger pack members that Remy trusted completely
at the moment, so an inner circle he could depend on would
be welcome.

Rylan stood next to Skylar just off to the side and he could

see his friend speaking in Skylar's ear—probably describing
all of the shifters. His mate nodded a few times, then said
something back to Rylan that he couldn’t make out.

His friend and second looked surprised and turned in his

direction,  then  made  a  face  that  said  he  wanted  to  talk.  It
wasn’t  the  most  subtle  or  smooth  way  to  signal  he  wanted
Remy's  attention,  but  it  worked.  Turning  to  his  brothers,

Blind Under the Moon

Remy asked Micah to take Rylan's place for a minute in
guarding his mate.

The other vampires were at his house. He'd offered to

invite them, but Skylar had declined, saying he appreciated
the thought, but this was a private pack matter. They were
still  learning  about  each  other,  where  the  boundaries  were
surrounding his pack and Skylar's coven. Jake the jackal was
still working on pinpointing what exactly was poisoning the
vampires, but had narrowed it down to something that acted
like  a  painkiller,  blocking  certain  signals  to  the  brain  from
the extra sensory abilities that drew a vampire to their mate.
Sage hadn’t left the shy jackal's side.

Remy had a feeling he would have a least two new pack

members soon, maybe even a mated pair.

Rylan quickly walked across the clearing towards him

when Micah took over standing watch by Skylar. His mate
didn’t miss a trick. Skylar just shook his head and looked
exasperated at being assigned a bodyguard at all times when
Remy wasn’t with him.

To be honest, Remy was surprise just how well Skylar

was  taking  his  possessive  protectiveness,  but  he  wasn’t
going to take any chances, especially since they hadn’t been
able  to  track  down  where  Trevor  and  his  inner  circle  had
disappeared to. The group that had dared to start something
in his house was also missing.

Nodding in Skylar's direction, Rylan reported his mate's

message. "Your vampire has a hell of a nose, Rem. He said
the  tall  blond  male  leopard  shifter  smells  like  young  cubs
and  by  the  looks  of  him  he  might  be  going  without  food
himself  to  feed  them.  The  big  black  panther  shifter  smells
like cheap motel soap so he probably doesn’t have anywhere
else  to  go.  And  the  redhead,  one  of  the  two  bear  shifters
smells like a few different drugs, but the scent isn’t coming
from inside him, but rather just on the surface of his skin, so

SA Welsh

Skylar thinks he might be a dealer, and the bald wolf shifter
with  the  scowl  smells  like  Trevor's  cronies  who  came  over
yesterday.  The  rest  of  the  shifters  are  a  mix  of  wolves  that
smell  quote  unobjectionable  unquote,  apart  from  the  hawk
shifter who smells like engine oil and the white haired wolf
shifter who Skylar says smells immature."

Wow. Remy wasn’t sure which to comment on first so he

went for the last one. "Immature?"

Rylan shrugged, but turned so they were looking directly

at the wolf shifter in question. The male was tall, probably a
few inches taller than Remy, but as he looked at the shifter
fidgeting and looking around nervously he had to agree
with his mate. "Yes. The shifter looked fully grown, but
Skylar says he smells like a cub."

"Okay, tell Skylar thank you for his observations. I'm

going to go and get things started." Remy waited until Rylan
was back at Skylar's side and his brother had moved to join
the rest of the hopeful fighters before stepping away from
the tree where he was leaning and watching people.

"Thank you!" A hush fell over the crowd. "Thank you for

coming  here  today.  However,  some  of  you  will  not  be
needed.  You  and  you  will  be  escorted  off  of  my  lands
immediately."  He  looked  at  two  the  shifters  Skylar  had
pointed out with a steeling gaze. He had no room for spies
or drug dealers.

The strong shifters Rylan had recommended stepped

forward and immediately surrounded the two shifters who
were  spluttering  and  snarling  insults  at  him.  Seeing  them
work together—the members of his pack—made Remy think
perhaps  he  might  have  to  look  into  training  them  with  the
enforcers  to  be  a  sort  of  team  that  could  go  places  or  help
Rylan  with  assignments.  It  would  mean  his  enforcers  and
betas could stay with the pack at all times and not leave the
pack undefended or unprotected. If it was anyone else, he'd

Blind Under the Moon

worry they might try to stage a coup, but Rylan had less
interest in leading than he did.

Once the suspected drug dealer and the spy were escorted

away, the rest of the shifters remained quiet, but they were
more serious and focused now. His wolf appreciated the
ones who tried to meet his gaze for more than a few seconds
before being forced to look away by their own animals. They
were testing him, making sure he was as strong as they'd
heard. Remy didn’t want sheep as his betas or his enforcers.

Looking them over, he quickly spotted the ones that

didn’t really want to fight. But they didn’t appear to be here
to cause trouble, either. Maybe they just wanted a place to
call home and a pack.

"To start with, let me tell you a little about myself and

why you're here. My name is Remington, but everyone calls
me Remy. My mate is Skylar, and he is a vampire. If you
have a problem with either of those things you can leave
now." Remy waited, casting an eye over the shifters as they
looked at each other to see if anyone left. No one did.

"Alright, then. If you simply want a place in the pack...I

will  consider  it.  I  will  meet  with  anyone  here  who  simply
wants  to  join  and  as  long  as  you're  not  a  psychopath."  He
paused, smiling as they laughed politely. Rylan, on the other
hand,  sounded  like  a  braying  donkey.  Sometimes  he  really
questioned his friend's sense of humor.

"As long as you're not a psychopath, there is a place here

for  you.  You'll  be  on  a  three  month  probation  period  after
which  we  can  talk  about  whether  you  want  to  stay  or
whether we need to find you another pack," Remy finished,
trying  not  to  stare  at  the  young  shifter  that  Skylar  had
thought was still a cub.

The pale wolf shifter stepped forward, head bowed

respectfully, and now that he was closer, Remy could make
out the scent of relief and fear. The scent must have been

SA Welsh

100

distorted or blown away in the open air for him not to have
noticed  it  before.  In  fact,  when  the  shifter  was  about  three
feet  away  Remy  almost  stepped  forward  and  hugged  the
cub to his chest. No one should look that defeated and alone.

"I'm Parker and I, um, I'd like to join and not fight please,

um, sir. I really don’t want to fight, but I had nowhere else to
go,"  the  kid  said  in  a  soft  voice  and  sounding  near  tears.
Parker wore jeans that were too short for him, but the waist
was  held  up  tight  with  a  tatty  belt.  Right  now  Remy
wouldn’t put the shifter over eighteen. Parker slowly met his
gaze and the kids pale blue eyes were full with tears. "Can I
really stay?"

If that didn’t melt everyone's heart, then he didn’t know

what would. Those eyes reminded him of Skylar, too. So
there was no way he was ever going to say no.

"You can stay. You see the hot guy over there with the

short black hair and blue eyes? He's my mate. If you're nice
he might share the couple of the Belgium chocolate bars I
saw him sneak into his jacket earlier."

Parker looked where he was pointing and Remy saw the

kid  gulp  and  blush.  "The  vampire?"  Rather  than  getting
possessive  or  angry,  Remy  just  smiled.  Parker's  voice  had
sounded shocked and a little turned on. Skylar was just that
hot.

"My vampire," he did say gently.
Parker ducked his head as the kid turned an interesting

shade of  pink. "Yes, Alpha. Thank  you, Alpha." The young
shifter  turned  and  bounded  over  to  his  mate  and  Rylan,
white hair flopping as he bounced. Cute.

Remy only watched them long enough to see Skylar

frown, then smile as he handed over a couple of bars of
chocolate and what looked like a protein bar to the excited
young wolf. Parker attacked the bars ravenously.

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101

Shaking his head, Remy turned back to the rest. He noted

that the blond leopard shifter Skylar had thought had young
cubs looked determined. His wolf respected that the man
didn’t simply take his offer, but wanted to earn his place. It
showed integrity.

"I have a second in my friend, Rylan. But I am looking for

two to four betas and up to six enforcers. I will be looking at
how  you  fight  and  will  let  you  know  as  we  go  whether  I
want to offer you a place in my inner circle. You may choose
to fight in human or animal form, but when your opponent
yields,  you  must  stop.  Pair  off  and  you  may  begin,"  he
announced.  The  clearing  was  suddenly  alive  with  noise,
growls and grunts as the fights began.

He started walking around the clearing, noting which

shifters  took  the  easy  hits  and  which  played  it  strategic.
When he came to his brothers, he almost laughed out loud.
Unsurprisingly, Micah and Asher had paired off separately,
but  were  close  enough  to  watch  each  other  fight  and  get
competitive.  But  they  both  downed  their  opponent  within
seconds of each other, slamming the opposing shifters flat to
the  earth.  "I  yield,"  both  down  fighters  grumbled  as  they
coughed and groaned in pain.

"Good. Micah, Asher do a walk around and see if anyone

catches your eye," he ordered in his alpha tone.

"Yes, Alpha," his brothers said together before beginning

to walk around the groups.

Spotting the leopard shifter fighting the hawk shifter, he

wandered  towards  them.  The  pair  was  grappling  hand  to
hand and both were good, clearly well trained and thought
through  their  moves.  The  hawk  landed  a  shot  to  the
leopard's  face,  but  took  a  hard  hit  to  the  solar  plexus  that
had Remy wincing in sympathy.

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102

The leopard shifter wiped away the blood dripping from

his mouth. The pair grinned at each other and went to
engage again. They were actually having fun.

Decision made, Remy stepped between them. "I'd like to

offer you both places as my enforcers."

Both shifters snapped to attention and grinned proudly. "I

accept, Alpha," they said together.

"Great. Thank you. Go over to my mate and second and

he'll sort out if you need to make arrangements to pick
anything up to move into the alpha house." Remy wanted to
linger and talk longer, but he had to shop around for more
members of his new inner circle.

The shifters shared a look and the leopard looked

worried. "We'll be living with you?"

Remy could understand the wariness. He wouldn’t be too

keen moving in with a stranger. He'd discussed it with
Rylan and Skylar and they'd decided it was probably the
best plan of action for now. It would also help them get to
know everyone.

But until the construction team he’d hired to build

another  wing  onto  the  house  with  dozens  more  bedrooms
finished,  they  would  have  to  squeeze  in.  "Yes.  I  have
contractor coming by tomorrow to firm up the drawing for a
new wing to my house. You'll be able to request any changes
or  certain  things  like additional  space  or  if  there's  a  reason
you need a suite," he said meeting the leopard shifter's gaze,
but not employing any dominance in the stare.

"Thank you. My name is Liam and I have three cubs

under four," the leopard said quietly, but there was a wealth
of feeling in the words.

The hawk shifter looked surprised, but then the sharp

facial features of the man softened and they both moved
away, heading in Rylan's direction. The hawk shifter turned
and jogged back to him. "I'm Alex by the way."

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103

So that was two beta spots taken and two enforcers slots

filled.

Scanning over the rest of the shifters, Remy saw a few

that were good fighters, but he and his wolf agreed they
wouldn’t fit.

A yelp from behind him made him spin around, alert and

trying to work out what had caused it. One of the large wolf
shifters had one of the smaller shifters pinned in wolf form.
The smaller shifter appeared to have been knocked out and
wasn’t moving. But the bigger shifter wasn’t stopping and
he was going to rip out the unconscious wolf's throat.

Without stopping to think, Remy ripped off his shirt and

jumped.  He  shifted  in  the  air  faster  than  he'd  ever  done
before and landed in full wolf form just a foot away from the
wolf.  Remy  took  down  the  attacking  wolf.  Using  his
superior  weight  and  strength,  he  pegged  the  other  shifter,
slamming him into the earth.

Remy's wolf was furious. How dare this wolf go against

his orders!

It only took seconds for the other wolf to recover and start

snapping  at  him,  but  Remy's  wolf  was  much  stronger  and
bigger. It was pitifully easy to pin the wolf on its back and
close  his  teeth  around  the  offending  wolf's  neck,  pressing
hard on the jugular, but not breaking skin.

He pushed his dominance into the wolf below him,

forcing  the  shifter  to  change  back  to  human.  Despite  the
wolf's size, it didn’t seem to be very strong, and the male's
shift  took  over  three  minutes.  The  fur  under  his  mouth
eventually receded, but he didn’t back away until the shifter
choked out the words "I submit."

Remy let his own wolf recede so he could take human

shape and speak.

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104

"How dare you defy the terms I set for this contest," he

shouted, realizing the other shifters had ceased fighting and
were now just watching them, waiting to see what he'd do.

His jeans had ripped off when he shifted and he had no

desire to be pressed against anyone naked that wasn’t Skylar
so Remy quickly pushed to his feet, leaving the other wolf
shifter lying in the dirt.

Clearly, the wolf was stupid as well as deaf. "I won. It's

my right to kill him."

"No it's not because you were warned it was only until

yield," Remy spat back, disgusted as the man continued to
try and act like he was in the right.

The bear shifter who had been fighting with another wolf

coughed and looked at Remy respectfully before bowing his
head. "This one smashed a rock to the other one's head. He
didn’t win by skill."

Asher's scent got stronger and his brother came to stand a

step behind him to the right. "The bear is right, the smaller
wolf is fast. I was watching them fight and I saw this sorry
excuse grab a rock and nail the smaller shifter with it in the
temple. If he'd done that to a human, then we'd have a dead
body to dispose of."

That was worse than he'd first thought.
"No I didn’t. Who the fuck are you anyway, asshole?" The

wolf finally got to his feet and Remy was careful to keep
himself between the shifter and the unconscious wolf.

"I've no room for a cheat and a liar. And that asshole? Is

my brother and my beta. I want you off my lands by the
time I count to ten or I might be tempted to let my wolf rip
out your belly."

"But...."
"Go," he said firmly, letting his wolf show in his eyes. It

must have made for an impressive sight, as the shifters who

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105

could see his face from where they stood stepped back and
muttered nervously.

The naked shifter didn’t stick around, instead he turned

around  and  hotfooted  it  out  of  the  clearing.  Remy  didn’t
need to say anything—Asher followed at a distance to make
sure the guy actually left without causing any trouble. "Only
maul  him  a  little  bit.”  Remy  thought  to  call  out  to  his
brother,  knowing  Asher  could  hear  him  when  a  response
came back, "Buzz kill!"

Laughing it off, Remy ignored the stares and walked over

to Skylar and Rylan. Rylan was holding out a spare pair of
jeans. Clearly, his second had come prepared.

"Thanks," he said as he took the jeans from Rylan's

outstretched hand.

"Don't thank me yet. I had to explain what was happening

to  your  mate  and  keep  him  from  jumping  into  the  fray.
Damn vampire hissed at me with his big freaky teeth. I don’t
know  how  you  let  those  choppers  near  your  junk."  Rylan
laughed with a mock shudder and nudged Skylar when his
mate swiped at him.

"I would never hurt Remy's junk," Skylar snapped,

sounding offended.

It was amusing watching his best friend and his mate

tease and poke at each other.

Once he'd covered his ass in denim, Remy turned around

and saw everyone was still looking at him. "Anyone stand
out for you, Micah?"

His eldest brother had been a beta for years, so he would

better know what to look for and whether anyone had
potential.

"Two wolves for enforcer positions. Another wolf I'd pick

to work with as a beta, and the panther Asher wanted."

Remy mulled the information over and came up with a

plan. If it didn’t work out, then he could always revisit the

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106

fighters who’d turned up here at a later date. "If you and
Asher each work with and train up the ones you picked out,
then I'll go with your judgments. The two wolves are
probably the one with the piercings and the one with the red
hair, right?"

Micah looked surprised, but smiled. "Yeah, they are. I

didn’t think you'd pick up on those two. And I have to hand
it to you, bro. I've never seen anyone shift so quickly," Micah
finished, going from proud big brother to annoying brother
and back to proud big brother in the space of one breath.
"Me and Asher will take them and whip them into shape."

"Good. Then we'll see if you can take me," Remy teased,

laughing out loud when his brother paled. "I'm kidding. My
wolf might want to spar, though."

Micah swallowed audibly. "Yeah…sparring would be

good."

Out of the corner of his eye, Remy saw his mate smile and

turn away. Skylar knew he was messing with his brother. It
was fun having the upper hand, for once.

He walked into the middle of the clearing and looked

over  the remaining  shifters.  Remy  wasn’t  sure  if  he  should
say  this  in  a  more  formal  manner—he  figured  they  could
have  a  formal  ceremony  once  everyone  had  a  few  days  to
settle. "I would like to extend the offer of enforcer positions
to you and you"—he spoke to the wolf shifter with the red
hair  and  the  one  with  the  facial  piercings—  "and  offer  the
positions for beta to you two"—singling out the panther and
the wolf shifters his brothers had noticed.

Every man he'd spoken to smiled and moved over to

stand with the other two enforcers. The rest looked
disappointed and disheartened as they started to disperse
and the ones that had shifted headed for wherever they had
left their clothes.

Urgh, he was such a sap.

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107

Remy glanced over at Rylan only to see his second

watching  the  men  walking  away  with  their  shoulder
slumped  and  sadness  and  disappointment  thickening  the
air.  Rylan  looked  his  way,  raised  an  eyebrow  in  question,
and  sent  him  a  pleading  look.  At  least  he  wasn’t  the  only
sap.  It  was  just  like  when  they  were  kids  and  Rylan  had
managed  to  convince  him  to  climb  a  tree  to  rescue  a  cat.
Remy just hoped it didn’t turn out the same way.

It ended up the cat was up there by choice and scratched

the shit out of him so much he'd had to be covered in
plasters for days and was the laughing stock of the pack.

"Wait!"
It wasn’t normal for an alpha to let so many strong

shifters into his pack, but Remy couldn’t stand to see some
of them so defeated when they had all fought well. "If you
would like to petition to join my pack, then the same offer as
before the fight still stands."

Everyone looked surprised except Rylan and Skylar.
No one moved, though. They just kept staring at him.
"Are you for real?" At first Remy didn’t know who had

spoken, then he realized it was the wolf shifter that had been
knocked unconscious with the rock. The small, olive skinned
wolf shifter was awake and standing and the nasty, bloody
gash had healed up to just a small cut. That was pretty fast,
even for a shifter.

But how did you answer a question like that?
Micah growled and made a move to step towards the

shifter, but Remy lifted a hand to stay him. The wolf hadn’t
said it in a disrespectful way. "Yes. I may not follow all the
norms for an alpha, but I'm trying to build a strong pack and
you all fought well."

"My name is Jacko, Alpha Remy. So are you only going to

take in strong shifters then?" This time there was a little bit
of suspicion in Jacko's voice, but still not over the line into

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disrespect. His wolf perked up inside him and really looked
at the smaller shifter. Remy could pick up notes of fear and
pain certainly, but underneath that there was a sour
bitterness—desperation.

"No, I will not only allow strong shifters into my pack,"

Remy said slowly, using the same words as Jacko had. He
felt there was something important behind the words.
"Why?"

Jacko bit his lip and shuffled his feet. "If we take you up

on your offer will we have the protection of the pack?" The
shifter was clearly nervous and Remy could understand
why.

But he wanted an answer. So he repeated his question.

"Why?"

Remy's wolf went on alert when Jacko whined and

ducked  his  head.  The  scent  of  desperation  and  pain
intensified. But the shifter still refused to talk. "Micah, swap
places with Rylan and stand by Skylar. Rylan, I want you to
set  up  sleeping  places  for  anyone  who  wants  to  stay  and
lead them back to my house. The crew is coming tomorrow
in force and the owner said they’ll be bringing enough men
to get a structure up by the end of the day. Everyone else, if
you want to join the pack, then I want you to stay with me
for the first few weeks, so try to make yourself useful please.
I'll see you back at the house. If you do not wish to stay, then
please vacate my lands within twenty-four hours."

People jumped to do what he said. And he turned his

attention  back  to  Jacko  when  the  shifter  walked  closer  to
him. "Talk. Now." Remy only had so much patience and the
amount  of  fear  and  desperation  coming  off  the  man  was
getting stronger by the second.

"I have a sister. She's human and my mother is evil. Really

evil, and hits her when I'm not there to stop her. I came here
because I thought that if I could fight and get chosen as an

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enforcer, then you might help me get her out of there
before…"

Remy's wolf froze. "Before what?"
Getting information out of the smaller wolf was like

getting  blood  from  a  stone.  Jacko  seemed  to  shrink  into
himself. When Jacko's hand clenched, then  drifted down to
his thighs and his fingernails dug so hard into his own flesh
that  blood  started  to  pool  in  the  half-moon  gouges,  Remy
had an awful feeling where this was going.

"B-b-before she—"
"Stop,” Remy rushed to say, reaching out, but he didn’t

touch the man.

"But you won't help if I don’t tell you," Jacko grated out,

sounding like he'd swallowed a handful of straight razors.

Jacko's dark curly hair was plastered to his face as the

wolf  sweated  under  the  stress  of  what  was  clearly  a
distressing subject. And Remy didn’t have any idea what the
right  thing  was  to  say  or  if  he  would  accidentally  make
things  worse  for  the  young  man.  In  actuality  Jacko  was
probably  only  a  year  or  two  younger  than  him,  but  right
then Remy's wolf felt extremely protective.

"You don’t have to tell me about whatever happened to

you if you don’t want to. But maybe you should think about
talking to someone." He paused for a few minutes. There
was really only one thing to do here. "I'll help you."

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Chapter Eight

n hindsight, Remy probably should have asked more
questions about what they were getting themselves into.

Jacko's mother turned out to be the very wealthy and
powerful widow of a former senator.

With very fast security. Remy and Sage had barely

breached  the  perimeter  of  the  massive  estate  where  Jacko's
mother lived before alarms started sounding in the distance.
If  it  wasn’t  for  Alex—the  hawk  shifter—being  a  whiz  with
computers, then making it seem like the breach was on the
other side of the estate, they no doubt would have been up
to their asses in black suited goons by now.

Sage had made him wear clothes that would tear easily in

case they needed to shift. He'd ripped all of his old pairs of
jeans already so he was left with a pair of black trousers he'd
worn  to  a  premier  once  and  an  old  shirt  that  he'd  been
meaning  to  throw  away.  For  burglars,  they  were  well
dressed,  as  if  they  were  stopping  for  cocktails  on  the  way
out.

"Try to keep up, Alpha Remington Runt," Sage jibed as his

brother efficiently jimmied the window open and climbed
through before Remy could do anything more than growl.

When they'd all gotten back to the house after the fight for

rank contest, Remy had told Skylar and his new betas what
was going on—what he knew, not what he suspected—but
Skylar had gotten the full story when he'd gone to the
bedroom to change clothes. They'd decided to go in and get

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some information and look around to see if everything was
as Jacko had told him. Just to be on the safe side.

Alex had done some digging and found a few errant

funds transfers to hidden accounts so they had something to
use as leverage if they needed it, but Sage had insisted that
they go in on foot to check the inner workings of the estate
and look for Jacko's sister. They'd go in, look around and
talk to Jacko's sister before they took any further action.

Sage had revealed yet another secret—that he wasn’t

exactly  unfamiliar  with  breaking  and  entering.  To  which
Remy had responded  with silence, then he just walked out
of  the  room  to  prepare  to  leave.  He  didn’t  know  who  his
brother was.

Remy still didn’t know the answer. And he felt the hole

deeply.

"You need to talk it out. Or punch it out. Either way,"

Skylar had said as his mate tried to comfort him. "He seems
like he kept things from you to protect you. But you're not
kids now and you're strong enough not to need that now. So
get off your ass and fix it."

He laughed at how shocked he'd felt at that. "You're

supposed to be on my side," he'd grumbled.

Skylar had just pushed him back against the closed

bedroom door and nipped his bottom lip before sucking on
the bleeding flesh lightly. "Always. But I'm your mate and
you need me to tell you when to pull your head out of your
ass."

Still a bit miffed at the lack of coddling, Remy had just

made a snarky remark. "You're obsessed with my ass." And
he definitely hadn’t pouted.

"Stop pouting and I'll show you how obsessed with your

ass I am when you get back. Now go and be the white knight
and break into some crazy bitch's house," Skylar had
ordered before letting him go and all, but pushed him out

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the door with a pat on the backside. He was definitely a bad
influence on Skylar.

Now that Remy' had had a few hours to think about it,

Skylar had been dead right. He wasn’t a child, and he didn’t
have to sit around and wait for things to magically fix
themselves. "When we get back, you and I are going to sit
down and you're going to tell me everything. Even what you
had for fucking breakfast for the last six years."

Sage shot around to look at him in surprise, mouth agape,

but getting himself under control. "Yeah. Okay."

"Good," Remy replied smugly. "Now let's do this so I can

go home and get fucked."

Seeing the mixed look of disgust and jealousy on his big

brother's face was almost enough to make him collapse with
laughter  on  the  spot,  but  somehow  he  managed  to  keep  it
together  by  biting  his  lip  and  thumping  his  fist  against  his
thigh.

"You're still a brat," Sage spat with a childish glare.
"And you're so grown up," he shot back as Sage closed the

window and they moved through the study and towards the
door. From the building plans Alex had found for them, this
room was right by the stairs, so they could get quickly up to
the second floor to Jacko’s sister's room. And in theory,
without bumping into anyone.

Sage opened the door a scant inch, then signaled for them

to  move.  Remy  followed  his  brother's  directions  and  they
quickly but silently ran up the wide staircase, bypassing the
first  floor  and  continuing  upwards  to  the  second.  Remy
didn’t know who the hell decorated this place, but it looked
more  like  a  movie  set,  with  a  huge  elaborate  chandelier
hanging from the high open ceiling.

"Jacko said turn left, then first on the right, right?"

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"Yes," he agreed, straining to hear for any more guards

who might be on this floor. "I can't hear anyone. Shouldn’t
there be at least one guard or something up here?"

Sage frowned and cocked his head, listening as well.

"Yeah, there should be someone here. Keep your senses
sharp while I go find the door. Stay here," Sage instructed.

Remy's wolf didn’t like being told what to do, but then

he'd  never  liked  being  told  what  to  do  very  well  and  his
tolerance  for  that  had  diminished  dramatically.  "Fine,"  he
ground out as he tried to remember why they were here and
that  he'd  agreed  to  follow  Sage's  instructions  while  they
were on the job without question.

The stairs looked like they were some kind of marble and

the  banister  shone  like  gold,  but  neither  smelled  authentic.
The marble smelled like acrylic and the gold felt like polished
wood. There was also a stale smell to the air. On the surface,
everything  here looked opulent  and rich, but if you looked
closer,  everything  was  imitation.  Even the  paintings  on  the
wall that were supposed to be oils were actually 2D prints.
Everything here was to present an image.

Something was different. He just couldn't quite put his

finger on it. "Shit!" The Alarm had stopped. Remy took up
position behind on the many marble statues. When he heard
feet slamming on the stairs, he tried to grab Sage's attention.
"Sage!"

His brother had been examining the door that supposedly

lead to Jacko's sister's room, but turned around to see him
and hissed. "What?"

"Alarm?" The footsteps had faded, so Remy guessed the

security had figured out the breach wasn’t where Alex had
lead their alarm system to believe. It sounded like they were
searching the first floor, but it wouldn’t take them long to
find them after that.

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Comprehension lit Sage's face at the same time. "Get over

here."

Remy ducked his head over the banister one last time to

check to see if anyone was heading their way. He couldn’t
see anyone, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be heading
his way soon.

"What do we do?" Remy ran over to his brother and

bounced on the spot a little before he could stop the move.
He  had  to  admit  he  was  a  little  excited.  Every  little  boy
dreamt  of  being  a  spy  and  right  now,  he  felt  like  he  could
kick James Bond's ass. Yeah!

Sage rolled his eyes and Remy blushed.
"Just don’t get in the way or make any noise okay?"
"I can do that," he assented, feeling disappointed.
Sage didn’t look convinced, but kept working on the

door. There was some kind of electronic lock. The two-inch
square screen lit up and displayed a message asking for a
code. This seemed a little overkill for a little girl's bedroom.
His previous excitement evaporated. "Something's not right,
is it?"

His brother didn’t say anything, which worried Remy

even more.

Sage waved his phone over the screen and after a second

the red light at the top flashed green. "Handy," he
commented.

They both twisted to look at the stairs as they heard

footsteps again. "Get in

" Sage urged, practically pushing

through the door as it opened.

Remy stumbled as he was shoved through the door and

almost fell flat when his brother shoved him into the  room
and closed the door and waving his phone  over the screen
on  the  locking  device  this  side  of  the  door.  "That  will  only
keep them out for a few minutes."

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115

Remy scented fear—like screaming until you lose your

voice hysterical terror—and the sweet scent of a little girl. A
little human girl.

The room was sparsely decorated, unlike the rest of the

house.  There  was  only  a  single  bed  in  the  middle  of  the
room,  the  windows  were  barred  and  bare  of  curtains  or
blinds. There was a  small desk against the  one wall  with a
few books on it, what looked like a built in wardrobe on the
opposite  wall,  but  nothing  else.  There  was  none  of  the
pretty, sparkly things his sisters had in their rooms as kids.
There was nothing welcoming or happy about this room.

"Hello?" Sage walked over to the bed and flipped the

covers off so they could see under the bed. It was clear. But
the scent of fear intensified. Wherever she was, she could see
them.  Sage  straightened  and  strode  over  to  the  wardrobe,
but  it  was  clear  there  too.  This  wasn’t  getting  them
anywhere  and  he  needed  to  talk  to  her  to  see  if  Jacko  was
right.  Remy  didn’t  doubt  that  something  horrible  had
happened  to  Jacko—you  couldn’t  fake  that  kind  of  pain—
but he couldn’t kidnap a little girl without cause.

It said something for the eight year old that neither Remy

nor Sage could pinpoint her position. Happy children didn’t
know how to hide that well because they only hid in games.
Scared children, however, were another story.

Remy decided to try a new tack.
"Rose? Are you here? Jacko sent us."
"You're lying. You're a friend of Mom's and you're going

to try and hurt me," a little voice said from somewhere in the
room.

A large thud and grunt sounded from the other side of

the door and the handle rattled as the locking device beeped
and flashed angrily. "I changed the code, but it won't fool
them for long. All they have to do is input the reset code."

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Sage gave him a look that said they needed to get going.
Now.

"I'm not lying. I promise—" Remy dragged a hand over

his hair and wondered if the little girl needed a show of trust
to get her out "—will you come out if I can prove Jacko sent
me?"

The thumps got louder on the door and Sage started to

come  over  to  presumably  push  against  it  as  support,  but
stopped  dead,  paling.  Remy  kept  one  eye  on  his  brother
while  he  tried  to  think  of  the  best  way  to  say  what  he
wanted to. His hunch would either get Rose to trust him or it
would traumatize her.

Remy watched with slight concern as Sage moved back

over  to  the  wardrobe  doors  and  threw  one  wide  open.
"Hey!"  The  door  swung  open  and  disturbed  the  air  in  the
room, fanning more scents his way and Remy realized why
his  brother  had  acted  so  rashly.  The  door  actually  led  to  a
bathroom  instead  of  another  storage  area,  but  that  wasn’t
what  had  his  blood  temperature  rising  and  his  wolf
growling in fury. It was what he smelled in the bathroom—
blood  and  human  men.  It  was  old  scent,  but  still  nothing
that should be in a child's bedroom or bathroom.

"What the hell?" Sage's eye had shifted and he felt his

brother's wolf close to the surface. Remy could hear beeping
and shouting through the door. It wouldn’t be locked for
much longer. This was getting out of hand quickly.

"Get over here. Take the door and if anyone comes

though…" He ordered, but trailed off and gave Sage a
meaningful look. If anyone matched the scents in here, then
they would die. It was as simple as that.

"Rose?"
"Yes. If you prove you know Jacko, then I'll come out," she

said and Remy could hear the slight tremble in her voice.

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117

"Okay then. Can you see me?" Remy was sure she could,

but he wanted to make sure.

There was a pause and his lips twitched. She was smart

enough to be suspicious of the simple question. "Yes, I can
see you."

"Good. Now I want you to look right at me and don’t look

away or even blink. Can you do that?"

"Of course," she snapped primly.
He didn’t initiate a full shift, but he did call forth his

alpha form. The pants he wore—thankfully—had a lot of
give in them, but the shirt shredded like tissue paper against
his massive increase in the size of his pecks and biceps and
the sheer width of his shoulder in his new form. His shoes
burst open as they failed to contain his feet and claws and
his legs reshaped.

"You! You're like Jacko—you're different."
"Yes. I'm a wolf shifter like your brother, but I'm his

alpha. That means he has my protection and the protection
of my pack. And you do to. I need you to tell me the truth
now, Rose. Do you want to stay here?"

She didn’t answer and Remy wondered if he'd gone too

far.

Gunshots poured like rain through the door and Remy

and his brother dropped to the floor. He hoped wherever
Rose was right now wasn’t in line with the door. The people
outside kept shooting and splinters of the door flew all over
the floor. Sage army crawled over to where he lay flat to the
brown carpet. "I overestimated them, but with the guns
they'll be in here in under a minute."

Even with the loud banging ringing in his ears, he heard a

scraping sound come from just to the left of him. The carpet
rumpled at the edges where it met the wall and as he
watched the iron grate of the air vent at floor level popped
off and a slim little girl climbed through the gap. It took a bit

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of wiggling, but she climbed out until she stood, barefoot
and dusty in front of him and to the left. She wasn’t in the
line of fire, but it would only take a stray bullet to hurt her.

"I do not want to stay here. Will you take me to Jacko?"
Nodding, Remy took a breath and leapt to his feet. He

quickly scooped Rose up into his arms and pressed against
the wall so he was between her and any bullets.

"Sage?"
"Window. Too much risk going through the doors with

her," his brother said firmly before scuttling towards the
window. "Inch diameter iron bars. Can you bend them?"

Remy had no idea. But he guessed the awesome muscles

in this form had to be good for something. "Will you let my
big  brother  hold  you  while  I  break  us  out?"  Even  though
he'd grabbed her when she came out of her hiding place, he
didn’t  want  to  push  her  too  far  if  she  had  been  abused  as
badly as he thought.

Rose looked him up and down from where she sat in his

big, hairy arms, then looked at Sage. "Big brother?"

Sage looked horrified, then broke out in a smile.

"Everyone's a critic. May I?"

Really, you'd think they weren’t being shot at by how

calmly  they  were  all  carrying  on  this  conversation.  Rose
leaned  down  and  Remy  realized  just  how  much  bigger  he
was  and  he  had  to  bend  at  the  knees  to  pass  her  to  his
brother more easily.

With Rose safely deposited in Sage's hold, Remy flipped

the bed up on its end, swung it around to be between Sage
and Rose, and the door. The gun fire had lessened as the
people outside figured out that wasn’t working, but he could
hear them moving around and shouting to fetch something
so he figured Sage's estimate of a minute was optimistic.

He looked at the four foot square window. There were

about a dozen iron bars.

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119

Remy took in a deep breath and let it out quickly before

punching  the  double  thickness  glass  and  using  his  clawed
hands  and  his  thickened  skin  to  clear  away  the  glass  from
the  window  frame.  Once  he  was  fairly  certain  the  glass
wouldn't be in the way when they climbed out, he turned his
attention to the bars.

"Hurry it up, bro."
"I am hurrying," Remy snapped back.
He grabbed the two middle bars and pushed. Nothing

happened  for  a  second,  then  he  threw  a  bit  more  strength
behind  his  push  and  they  bent  and  came  loose  from  their
concrete fastening in the window frame. The rest were easy
after that and two by to he ripped them out of the wall and
dragged  them  inside  to  drop  onto  the  bedroom  floor.  It
wouldn’t do to give anyone downstairs a clue as to how they
were  getting  out.  Right  now,  he  guessed  the  humans  were
assuming the only way out was through the door they were
trying to break down.

Sage Put Rose down, now that the gunfire had stopped,

and looked at Remy. "Give me a hand?"

Sage climbed out of the window and Remy grabbed his

hand. Taking his brothers weight, Remy lowered Sage as far
as he could reach, then let go. By that point, it was almost
like jumping from a first floor, and Sage just rolled to absorb
the impact as he landed.

Rose's eyes were almost too wide for her head and he

could see the little girl losing her courage fast. "You up for
trusting me one more time?"

She jutted her chin out. Remy and his wolf were damn

impressed. She was a strong little thing. "Absolutely."

At the same time the door to the bedroom gave way,

Remy picked Rose up and wrapped her arms around his
neck. Without looking down, Remy jumped through what
used to be the window. He experienced an oh fuck moment

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as they fell to the ground with Rose screaming in his ear, but
his longer, stronger legs stayed firm as they absorbed the hit
when they landed.

Keeping one arm around Rose, Remy crouched and dug

his  free  hand  into  the  earth  as  energy  raced  along  his
muscles.  "Wow,"  Sage  exclaimed.  His  brother  stood  there
staring at him, mouth open in awe. If they'd had time, Remy
would  have  preened  under  the  attention  from  the  big
brother he used to idolize, but they needed to get out of here
before  their  luck  ran  out  and  the  security  gunman  actually
hit their mark.

"Move," Remy growled.
He started to run in the direction of the exit point Sage

had marked where Alex and Asher were waiting. They'd
thought it was best to go in a small group to reduce the risk
of being detected.

Sage was right behind him as they took off. The humans

had no chance of catching up to them on foot now, but they
didn’t need to run. The men had guns and seemingly
endless ammunition.

"They're coming!"
Rose screamed in his ear and Remy kept running, but

twisted his head to look behind him. "They've got a four-by-
four buggy!"

They were now only a hundred or so meters out from the

tall foreboding fence that they'd climbed over to get in. They
weren't going to make it. There just wasn’t going to be
enough time to climb over with Rose before the humans got
close enough to actually hit what they were shooting at—
that being them.

Sage must have been thinking the same thing. "Don't,

Remy. We can make it."

"You know we can't," he argued. It was less than fifty

meters now. He reached up and untangled Rose's arms from

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around his neck and threw her at Sage like he used to do
with a football when his big brother had trained him for
tryouts. Sage caught her and she grabbed at his brother like
a boa constrictor as she screamed again.

Remy skidded to a stop and swung around to run in the

opposite direction. He was headed straight for the security
buggy. He let his wolf take over and shifted to full wolf
form. He was bigger than the last time he'd shifted again. He
was almost as big as the buggy now.

Tucking his head into his chest, Remy dodged around the

buggy  coming  straight  at  him  and  threw  his  shoulder  into
the  driver's  side.  The  vehicle  shuddered  under  the  force  of
his  blow.  He  barged  it  again  and  the  wheels  on  the  closer
side came off the ground. If he could tip it, then they could
have no immediate means to follow them.

Remy tensed and prepared to charge the vehicle again

when sharp stabbing pains ripped through his shoulder and
side. Howling, he resisted the urge to withdraw and pushed
again at the battered side of the buggy. One more shove
toppled the vehicle and he heard shouts as the engine went
up in flames when the buggy turned over onto its roof. The
wheels squealed and hummed as they kept turning round in
thin air.

Remy didn’t stick around to see if anyone made it out of

the  vehicle.  They  could  all  burn  for  being  involved  with
whatever  evil  was  going  in  that  estate.  Even  if  the  guards
could argue that they didn't know about the heinous abuse,
they  did  know  that  Rose  was  in  the  room  when  they  were
shooting through the door.

So he pushed his wolf body as fast as he could and

jumped straight at the metal link fence. Momentum more
than anything else pushed him up and over it. He hurt.
Remy wasn’t sure how many bullets he had inside him, but
he wasn’t healing. Why wasn’t he healing?

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Alex was leaning out of the open boot of the large Jeep,

looking anxious. Remy supposed this was quite a
demanding first day on the job.

Remy leaped off the fence and stumbled towards the car,

trying to ignore the crunch in his foot. His wolf body wasn't
made to climb or jump great heights. And he had no way to
shake off the impact, so his muscles and joints were feeling it
now. God he wanted a hot bath and a cold beer.

As soon as Remy jumped inside the vehicle, Alex

slammed the boot closed and yelled at Asher in the driver's
seat. "Go, go, go!"

Asher gunned the engine and sped off down the road.

"What the hell! What the actual hell? This was a covert recon
job and suddenly you're running with a bunch of black
suited nutjobs chasing you and shooting at you. And with a
little girl!"

"My name is Rose," Rose protested indignantly.
Remy whined as the adrenaline faded. Alex clambered

back over the seat to sit in the boot with him and Remy
collapsed to the thin mat. He vaguely felt fingers prodding
him and gave a half-hearted growl. He felt so tired.

"Oh fuck. He's been shot. And it looks like it's fucking

silver!"

"Fuck!"
The last thing Remy was aware of was Sage leaning over

the seat and lifting his head. "Stay with me, Remy." He tried.
He really did. But blackness swamped him. And he
drowned in the darkness.

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Chapter Nine

emy woke up to his alarm blaring in his ear. The evil
ear-splitting sounds had him rolling over and burying

his head under his pillow. Man, he'd had the weirdest
dream.

The alarm shut off and Remy sighed with relief.
He frowned as he tried to think about what day it was.

Monday? No, he didn’t set the alarm for Mondays. Maybe it
was Tuesday then. It couldn’t be later in the week, because
he didn’t feel as if he'd been asleep for days. And Remy
never had time to sleep during the week.

"Remington, I swear I will fetch your mother if you don’t

wake up and start thinking sense," a male voice snapped
him out of his comfortable snuffling into his pillow. "We are
going to have serious conversation about you waking up
and forgetting me, you big dumb dog!"

"Huh. What? Who?" he shot up in the bed, his legs caught

in the sheets.

"You better not be talking to me," the voice warned.
Remy opened his eyes and focused on the figure standing

at the bottom of his bed looking angry. Skylar! Oh, he was in
deep trouble. Could he go back to someone shooting at him?
Because frankly he'd prefer that rather than face his mate
after getting hurt and forgetting who he was.

"Skylar. I love you," Remy professed as he struggled to

get out of bed without hanging himself with the bedding. He
narrowly avoided falling flat on his face and kicked the

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stupid material keeping him trapped. "Dammit! What is
wrong with this bed?"

"It’s not the bed," Skylar commented dryly.
"Thanks." Frustrated, Remy just grabbed the bedding and

ripped. He'd get new damn bedding out of the linen
cupboard later. "Won't you come hug me? I was shot, after
all."

Skylar's cold expression broke and Remy regretted the

words the same second as they left his mouth. "I'm so sorry.
I shouldn't have made a joke." When he was finally free of
the fucking bedding, he ran the few short feet to where his
mate stood.

"Please don’t ever joke about that. They shot you with

fucking  silver  bullets  laced  with  a  sedative.  You've  been
unconscious  for  two  days."  Skylar  stayed  stiff  in  his  arms
and Remy felt awful. If things were reversed, he'd be yelling
and probably throwing things if his mate had been the one
hurt and leaving him to deal with everything on his own. It
had  only  been  a  handful  of  days,  but  already  Remy  didn’t
want to think of a life without Skylar.

"Good, because neither do I, so don’t do something so

monumentally stupid again, okay?" Skylar finally relaxed
against him, then Remy was getting the stuffing hugged out
of him.

"Silver has never bothered me much before,” He mused in

confusion, then dipped his head into the curve of Skylar's
neck to breathe in his mate's scent.

"But that was before your wolf side became an alpha wolf.

The stronger the wolf, the stronger the aversion. Touching it
to your skin would probably only burn a little, but having it
inside you was doing damage to your organs. The one bullet
travelled perilously close to your heart when you finally
shifted back to human. We couldn’t risk digging the bullets
out before you shifted in case you did it while we had a

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125

scalpel in your flesh. The scars faded a few hours ago after I
cleaned them," Skylar explained as he pulled back. His
mate's eyes bled to red and Remy thought of something else.

"Who have you fed from while I've been healing?" It was

probably one of his brothers. The bastards would love to get
their hands on his mate. Skylar was amazing, handsome,
intelligent, and sex on legs.

"I'm flattered, but if you think one more time that I would

betray you, I  will show you that being  bitten by a vampire
isn’t  always  a  pleasurable  experience."  Skylar  snarled  the
last bit and Remy wasn’t a bit ashamed about the fact that he
was getting hard.

"Don’t think you can seduce your way out of this," Skylar

protested in his ear and Remy started nibbling and sucking
his way up his mate's neck.

"Remy." Skylar made a weak attempt to push him away,

but he could hear the hunger in his mate's voice.

Remy kept kissing the tasty, slightly salty skin. "Didn’t

you promise to show me more about a particular obsession
with my ass?"

Skylar hissed when he sucked on the vampire's earlobe

and let his teeth scrape over the sensitive skin. "I don’t think
you deserve any treats. You certainly haven’t behaved."

"Maybe if you show me what I'll get if I'm good you'll

find  my  behavior  improves,"  he teased  as  he  played  along.
His  cock  was  full  and  heavy  now  as  he  stood  naked  and
gently  rubbed  himself  over  his  mate's  designer-pants
covered crotch.

"Don’t ruin my Todd Snyder pants," Skylar admonished

before stepping back from him. The abrupt lack of heat from
his mate's body being so close sent chills over him.

"Who's Todd Snyder?"

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126

Skylar gave him a look of disgust and set about removing

the offending pants, dispensing of the silky shirt as well.
"Philistine wolf!"

"Clothes whore vamp. Are we done calling each other

names now, because I have other plans for what to do with
my mouth," Remy said as his mouth salivated at the site of
Skylar's large, perfectly straight and glorious erection
pressed against his mate's abs. How did he get so lucky?

"Then get to it," Skylar ordered in the superior tone that

had Remy ready to drop to his knees and worship Skylar's
body.

Remy obeyed. It was no hardship to kneel and take

Skylar's prick into his mouth. His lips stretched almost to the
point of splitting as he sank down the velvety hot shaft.

"Oh, Remy. Please," Skylar cried out as Remy swallowed

the cock deep in his throat. Who knew sucking cock could be
so fun?

The head of Skylar's cock reached half way down his

throat  and  when  he  swallowed  again,  the  ripple  of  this
throat  muscles  contracting  sent  Skylar  up  onto  his  toes,
crying  out  again.  Remy  felt  powerful.  He  could  bring  his
lover  so  much  pleasure.  Every  time  he  swallowed  and
hummed or teasingly let Skylar feel the scrape of his teeth it
forced noises from Skylar Remy had never heard before.

His vampire's hips thrust forwards in tiny movements.

Skylar  was  obviously  still  able  to  think  if  he  had  enough
control to only thrust a little. Perhaps it was time to up the
ante.  With  his  one  hand  on  Skylar's  thigh  to  steady  them
both,  Remy  reached  up  with  his  free  hand  and  cupped
Skylar's balls. Even the hair in the most intimate  areas was
soft and inviting.

He teased and rolled the balls in his hand, tugging them

slightly. Skylar whimpered and thrust harder into his
mouth. Good, he was on the right track then. He tugged

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127

harder and timed his swallow and hum to do all three
almost simultaneously.

This time Skylar's hands that had been resting on his

shoulders came up to grab handfuls of his hair. "Remy!"

His vampire obviously liked a little pain with his

pleasure.

Remy breathed through his nose when his mate's cock

withdrew and when Skylar thrust back into his mouth he bit
down on the base of Skylar cock. At the same time, he
swirled his tongue around the shaft and tugged sharply on
the vampire's balls.

Skylar went wild.
"Stop! Stop or I'll come." Skylar warned with a shriek as

Remy repeated the motion.

Remy took pity on his mate and pulled off of Skylar's

penis. He sat back feeling pleased with himself as Skylar's
knees wobbled. His cool, calm vampire was coming apart at
the seams. And it was all because of him. His wolf was all,
but strutting inside his mind.

Skylar staggered over to the bed, reaching out to feel for

the edge. It was an unusual display. Remy grinned what he
knew was a predatory smile. His poor little vampire had no
idea what was coming his way.

Rolling onto his feet, Remy crouched and waited.
Skylar's head shot up as he read what was in Remy's

mind. But it was too late. Remy launched himself at Skylar,
pouncing more like a cat than a wolf, and pinned his mate to
the bed. And before their bodies had even stopped bouncing
on the springing surface, Remy swallowed Skylar's cock
again.

He held Skylar's wrists to the bed while his feet hooked

around Skylar's calves and spread them out wide. It was a
strained position as he used his own knees to keep Skylar
spread out for him. But Remy managed to keep his vampire

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immobile as he started to suck and taste his mate's beautiful
dick that was hard and weeping for him.

Remy bobbed over the erection, moaning in appreciation

like it was a prime-cut steak and a thing of beauty. To him it
was. Everything about Skylar was perfect.

It didn’t take long for Remy to scent the difference in the

air.  Skylar's  lust  filled  the  room,  but  as  he  sucked  harder,
there  was  a  slight  twang  of  desperation.  Skylar  was  close.
Flicking his eyes upwards, Remy saw Skylar's eyes flash  as
the  red  irises  looked  unseeingly  down  in  his  direction.  His
mate's mouth was open, displaying the deadly  white fangs
as  little  mewling  sounds  came  from  deep  inside  Skylar's
chest.

Without hesitating, Remy let go of his mate's wrists. And

the second he was free Skylar struck. His mate sat up and
bent over to sink those long teeth into his neck. Damn, the
vampire was bendy.

He grunted as he felt a quick spike of pain, but it quickly

washed away under the pleasure Skylar's bite gave him and
the satisfaction he felt at providing for his mate.

Remy humped the bed and screamed around Skylar's

cock as he came hard. Skylar came at the same time. The
slightly sweet and savory flavor exploded over his taste
buds and he gulped it down.

Skylar drank from him lazily as their bodies twitched and

shook  from  the  force  of  their  orgasms  until  Remy  couldn’t
hold  himself  up  any  more.  His  mate  withdrew  his  teeth  as
Remy  let  go  of  the  man's  cock  and  they  collapsed  in  a
tangled  pile  of  limbs.  Somehow,  they'd  managed  to  avoid
the wet patch he made. So everything was good.

"Don't be smug, it's unbecoming."
"Admit it. I just rocked your world," he said smugly,

stroking Skylar's hard, flat stomach.

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129

"Spoiled puppy," his mate grumbled, but Remy could

scent the absolute satisfaction coming off Skylar in waves.

"Yep, now share that stash of chocolate I know you have

hidden in here somewhere." Remy could kill for some
chocolate. And steak. Oh, and some ice cream and cake and
fried egg. Bacon! Bacon would be awesome. And a shit load
of spicy wedges and BBQ sauce. But the chocolate was the
only one of those things within grabbing distance, he bet, so
everything else would have to wait.

"No. Your mother said it made you itch."
"It does, but it's worth it. It just tastes so good," he said

sulkily.

The vampire just shook his head in exasperation.

When they finally managed to drag themselves

downstairs in search of food that wasn’t wrapped in
expensive gold foil and didn’t smell like the inside of a
French chocolatier's kitchen it had been hours.

Remy never thought he'd see the day when he'd get

enough  of  chocolate,  but  clearly,  he'd  been  mistaken.  And
now  he  owed  his  mate  a  caseload  of  expensive  rare  dark
chocolate that  you could only buy from a small chocolatier
in an obscure region of France. No wonder it tasted so damn
good.  He  just  wished  he  hadn’t  scoffed  a  whole  box  of  it
without taking a breath. His tummy hurt. And he was itchy.

Skylar had given him the rundown on what had gone on

while he'd healed as they'd showered. After they'd gotten
distracted with all the slippery skin. Twice.

The council had formalized his takeover of the pack and

his betas had rounded up the pack and managed to smoke
out a few more of Trevor's lackeys who'd stayed in the pack
to spy on him.

The construction team had gotten started and Skylar said

he'd instructed them to make the proposed wing twice as

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big. It seemed everything had ticked along fine without him.
There might have been a little part of him initially that felt a
bit purposeless at hearing he wasn’t needed to fix anything.
But Skylar had set him straight about the new betas and
enforcers running around making sure everything didn't fall
to pieces.

Remy could hear people talking before he even got to the

bottom of the stairs. Just how many people were in his
house?

They walked into the main living area and all chatter

stopped as people stopped mid-sentence to turn around and
stare. Yeah, because that wasn't creepy and unnerving in the
slightest. There were at least forty people in the room. That
was a lot of eyes to be staring at you.

"Hello,” Remy greeted, resisting the urge to grab Skylar's

hand or run away. All the reasons why he didn’t want to be
alpha flooded his mind. He wasn’t ready, he was too him, he
didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do, he didn’t
have a big enough house.

"Hello, Alpha." It wasn't said in sync, but it wasn’t far off.
He could tell his family wanted to run over to him and

hug him, but it wouldn’t be appropriate with everyone else
here for them to do it. Right now, he was alpha, and not just
Remy.

"Show me to a seat, mate?" Skylar took his hand in the

guise  of  guiding  him.  Despite  his  fears  and  problems,  he
wasn’t  about  to  let  his  mate  look  weak  when  he  was  so
strong.

"You know you can find your own," Remy replied,

shaking his head and taking a deep breath. There a few
gasps at his words. "While I've been healing, who has kept
everything running smoothly?"

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131

A few people started to smile and Remy looked to his

right where his inner circle stood together grinning. They
had probably guessed where he was going with this.

"Exactly. My mate."
"He's only a vampire though," one older shifter said.
Remy looked the man up and down and noted the bad

comb over, the knitted vest and the clunky gold bracelet.
The shifter was clearly from another generation, but
considering they lived for centuries, he wasn’t sure why the
man had chosen to stick with the 1950s.

"He is my mate, and from this moment on he is also my

other second." His words caused a few titters and gasps and
more  complaints  along  the  lines  of  he  can't  do  that.  "I  can,
actually. I want one thing cleared up once and for all. Trevor
was not a good alpha. Admittedly I wasn’t trained to be an
alpha." Remy paused and looked around the room, making
sure  to  look  the  people  he  knew  doubted  him  dead  in  the
eye  until  they  looked  away  in  submission,  and  he  resisted
glancing  at  his  mother.  "But  I  think  I  have  proven  that  the
decisions I make are for the good of the pack and not simply
for myself."

This time when mutters scattered across the crowds,

Remy  let  them  run  their  course  before  continuing.  "My
seconds  will  help  me  with  that.  If  I  am  unable  to  rule  this
pack for any reason, Skylar will be in charge with Rylan. Is
that  understood?"  It  wasn’t  usual  for  an  alpha  to  be  so
accommodating to doubts, but he figured they had a right to
be uncertain at first.

Silence.
But he wasn’t going to allow dissent in his pack. "Is that

understood?"

"Yes, Alpha." The crowd all dipped their heads as they

answered him.

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"But why are you letting weak shifters in—it makes us

weak too!" Remy didn’t catch who said that, but a quick
glance at Rylan let him know his friend did.

"Together, myself, my mate and my inner circle will build

a  strong  pack.  Helping  others  is  not  weakness.  Pretending
you  are  better  than  everyone  else  is.  That  attitude  will  no
longer be tolerated here. My mate's coven members are here
on  a  secret  task…so  naturally  you  all  know  about  it."  His
betas and enforcers laughed and a few others joined in too.
"Trevor was poisoning all of us with that smoke he insisted
was  traditional  herbs—it  increases  the  innate  urge  to  do
what a more dominant wolf says while dampening the sense
of  smell.  Think  back  to  when  Trevor  ever  asked  for
anything.  Did  any  of  you  agree  to  anything  you  ordinarily
wouldn’t have?"

He let that sink in. A few people nodded and others

voiced their answers.

"This isn’t the only thing Trevor has done. We believe he

was  involved  with  a  plot  to  endanger  and  harm  vampires.
All of them. Which means he is very dangerous and will be
out for revenge now that his empire is gone and the ground
will  be  shrinking  below  his  feet."  Remy  looked  sharply  at
Skylar  when  his  mate  squeezed  his  hand  suddenly.  Why?
Oh, right, the mind reading. Skylar knew what he was about
to do. If it wasn’t for the warm emotion he saw in Skylar's
bright  blue,  eyes  Remy  would  have  panicked  and  thought
he'd overstepped.

"What do you think?" He tried to whisper, but it was

more the illusion of privacy than anything else. Remy and
Skylar both knew that everyone in the room could hear
them.

"I think my mate is a wonderful man and a strong alpha.

Thank you for thinking of my family," Skylar spoke back
quietly. Those blue eyes misted up and Remy realized just

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133

how much this meant to his mate and how worried Skylar
had been about leaving his coven.

The vampire Elders were suddenly at the front of the

crowd of people in his living room with the shifters parting
around them like a rippled effect. They had probably come
to see why Skylar was so upset. Lavi and Van looked
interested while Dimitri just wore his usual expression of
arrogance and boredom. He couldn’t see Jake, but if he had
to guess he'd say the little jackal shifter was hiding from the
crowds in Sage's room. Remy nodded at them and pressed a
quick kiss to Skylar's hand.

"This is why I propose and extend the following offer.

Elders  of  my  mate's  coven,  I  offer  you  peace  between  my
pack  and  your  coven,  safe  passage  and  exchange  of
information  and  shared  resources  of  protection."  Basically,
he  offered  them  a  phone-a-friend  in  case  they  got  into
trouble  and  asked  for  the  same  in  return  while  requesting
open  communication  between  the  pack  and  the  coven  and
guaranteeing any members safety in each other's territory.

To say the vampire Elders were shocked was putting it

lightly. All three were open-mouthed and struck silent.

Predictably, Lavi was the first to recover and bowed. It

wasn’t  half-hearted  move  or  a  subtle  bob  of  respect.  Lavi
bowed  low  and  stay  there  until  Van  and  Dimitri  followed
suit.  All  three  straightened  at  once.  "That  is  indeed  a  most
generous  offer  and  I,  on  behalf  of  my  coven,  do  offer  the
same terms on the understanding that all coven Elders must
convene  to  pass  the  final  treaty.  In  the  meantime  I  request
residence  here  for  myself  and  my  two  fellow  Elders  along
with Jake."

Remy thought about it for a minute. It wasn’t

unreasonable and it would give Skylar company from home.
"Agreed."

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The pack members had been quiet while he spoke with

the  vampire  Elders,  and  it  was  clear  why.  No  single  pack
had  been  able  to  strike  a  bargain  or  treaty  of  peace  with  a
vampire  coven,  let  alone  an  Elder  coven,  since  before  pack
memory began. They'd just made history.

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Epilogue

emy watched as his mate leaned back against the
luxurious leather seats of his Aston Martin Centenary

Edition  Vanquish  2000  x  1333.  It  was  his  pride  and  joy.  He
hadn’t even told his brothers he'd bought one. They'd want
to  touch  it  and  drive  it  and  devirginise  his  dream  car  by
testing the speed on the open road. But Remy didn’t buy it
for that. He got it because he fell in love with this beauty the
moment  he  saw  her.  And  since  he'd  met  his  mate,  all  he'd
been  able  to  dream  about  was  seeing  Skylar  sitting  naked
against the matt black leather seats. It was sinful.

It had taken some convincing, but it was definitely worth

bugging Skylar and pulling the I'm still recovering card.
Because this sight was going to be starring in his dreams for
a long time.

"So…do you like it?"
"I admit. I can't appreciate the look of the car, the feel or

the cool sleekness of the design, but the shape and contours
of  the  car  are  divine,  and  the  inside  simply  feels  decadent.
The  scent  of  the  leather  with  the  new  car  smell  everyone
raves  about.  The  textures  of  the  silk  stitching  and  chilled
smooth  leather  against  my  skin  all  over  my  body  are
tantalizing and stimulating. As your mate I demand that you
sit  naked  with  me  in  here  once  a  week  and  talk  to  me
without  anyone  else  hearing,  seeing  or  demanding  your
attention."  Skylar  stretched  in  the  passenger  seat  and

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undulated in a way that made Remy want to install a pole in
their bedroom. Damn.

"Honey, would you consider—"
"Thank you for the compliment and I like the endearment,

but don’t push your luck," Skylar said with a smile, blue
eyes looking unfocussed in his direction.

It was hard to remember sometimes that Skylar was

blind.

"Thank you again." Skylar chuckled as Remy blushed.

"You're still not putting a permanent pole in our room. But I
might be persuaded to hire one for our anniversary."

Remy almost swallowed his tongue.
"Really?"
"You'll just have to wait a year to find out," Skylar cackled

evilly as Remy whimpered. Please let Skylar not be joking.
He'd sell a kidney. A foot. Hell, probably give his left nut to
see Skylar's lithe, tight, sexy as sin body swinging around a
shiny silver pole.

"Naughty mate."
They sat in silence for a while, relaxing in the quiet.
It had been nonstop since he'd woken up. Between

keeping negative pack members in line, avoiding his mother
and  her  well-meaning  hints  about  surrogacy,  they  hadn't  a
moment’s peace, really. His mother hadn’t broached the sore
subject  of  the  argument  or  her  keeping  so  many  things  a
secret, so there hadn’t been any closure or resolution there.
But  he  and  Sage  had  made  some  progress  and  Remy  was
working on forgiving his brother.

"You know what's bothering me?"
Confused with the abrupt change, Remy turned in the

seat, his bare ass squeaking on the leather. "What?"

"How did the security crew that shot you know to use

silver bullets? Even you didn’t know what it'd do to you."

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137

Frowning, Remy thought about it. "To be honest, I don’t

know. Jacko said his mother didn’t know he was a shifter,
but maybe he was wrong."

His vampire turned scooted around to face him fully. It

was  difficult,  but  Remy  managed  to  keep  his  eyes  up  and
not  get  too  distracted  by  all  the  bare  flesh.  "I've  also  been
thinking  that  all  these  separate  things  might  not  be  as
separate as we think they are."

"Go on,” He encouraged when Skylar stalled and didn’t

say any more.

"Well, when Sage, Alex and Asher brought you and Rose

back, I thought I smelled something strange, but I was too
upset about you bleeding everywhere to think about it until
now." Skylar sounded embarrassed, as if Remy was going to
criticize him for being concerned about him.

"Honey, I'm not ever going to criticize you. I might tell

you you're being a stuck up clothes snob when you use my
clothes as a protective layer between your garment bags and
the  floor.  But  you're  my  mate,  and  to  me  you're  perfect."
Remy reached out and took his vampire's hand. It wasn’t a
sexual thing  when he  brought  their  grasped hands into his
lap.  He  just  wanted  to  feel  closer  to  his  mate—his  wolf
needed the touch.

"So tell me what you smelled and what that big brain is

plotting.” He joked.

Skylar mock-glared at him. But Remy noticed the change

in  his  scent,  the  lighter,  happier  fragrance.  "I  smelled
something I couldn't put my finger on, but I had smelled it
before  in  the  samples  of  Jake's  work.  I  went  and  checked
earlier  while  you  and  your  mother  were  ignoring  the
elephant in the room. Jake told me the sample I smelled was
part of the poison in the bagged blood."

"And that means what?" Remy wasn’t slow, but he just

wasn’t getting the connection here.

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"Well, Jake said it’s from some rare plant that only grows

in very particular and rare sections of land. That was the
odor I smelled on yours and Sage's clothes…"

Now it was beginning to make sense. "And we were the

only two who stepped foot on the estate. So we had to have
come across the plant or a derivative of it while we were on
the grounds.” Remy though through out loud.

Skylar nodded. "Exactly. And that could be a coincidence

except when you put it together with the security staff using
silver plated bullets. The rumors I followed here were just a
general area which in theory would have included that
estate had I not been captured by Trevor. It was on my list of
places to investigate."

"So if it's all connected, then what does that mean?"
His mate shrugged. "I don't know. But it can't be good."
"I'll tell Micah and Gabriel—the panther beta—to organize

a thorough search of Trevor's properties and tear the places
apart. Lavi and Van might be persuaded to lend a hand."
Remy wanted the places turned over and Alex could do
some digging and see what nasties Trevor had hidden on his
laptop that the shifter had left behind.

"They will. Have I told you how much I appreciate you

letting them stay here and offering them the treaty?" Skylar
whispered, sounding overcome with gratitude.

"I want you to be happy here and not feel like you're

giving up everything for me," Remy confided as he sighed
and rubbed his thumb over Skylar's knuckles.

"You are my Mon âme soeur sang and worth it. But I do

admit  that  the  prospect  of  being  able  to  have  some  of  my
coven members visit and stay for a while makes it easier to
face  living  with  wolves  who  wouldn’t  know  designer  if  it
threw a Frisbee at them." Skylar gave a put upon sigh as if
he was heavily aggrieved.

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139

"Ass." Remy poked the rude vampire in the side, laughing

when Skylar shrieked and contorted to get away from him in
the small space.

"Why does it always come back down to your ass, my

wolf?"

"Because you know you want it," he said in a sing song

voice as he growled and tried to pull Skylar over to his side
of  the  car  so  he  could  tickle  the  sensitive  spots  he  knew
Skylar  had  on  the  inside  of  his  wrists  and  the  hollow  in
between the shoulder blades.

"Dream on," Skylar shot back, and went on the offensive.

Remy suddenly found himself pinned to his own seat with a
lap full of red-eyed horny vampire.

"Definitely," he said breathlessly as he surrendered to his

mate's touch.

About the Author

There  really  is  nothing  better  than  a  good  book  and  a  big
mug  of  tea  on  a  rainy  day,  which  is  often  needed  when
considering  the  wet  weather  in  Wales.  She  is  rarely  found
without  a  book  of  some  description  on  her  person  and  a
notebook,  she  can  always  be  seen  scribbling  and  doodling
while lost in thought about sometimes random nonsense or
day dreaming about alternate worlds of fiction. Real life may
not  be  much  fun  but  the  imagination  allows  infinite
possibilities  to  be  explored  and  lots  of  naughty  fun  too  if
you're  up  to  the  challenge.  So  in  the  words  of  a  crazy
scientist—I  reject  your  reality  and  submit  one  of  my  own.
Happy reading.