Secrets in the Moon (Crescent City Werewolves #1)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cora woke to muffled voices and the clatter of plates somewhere below. Instinctively, her hand jumped to the back of her head and found only sleep-mussed hair and normal skin. She sighed, all dread melting into relief. The sigil was gone. It hadn't been a mere dream.

The fire had smoldered out and left the room in darkness, but she could see that Hayes' chair was empty. And if she listened hard enough, she could hear his voice among the others, indistinct but serious in tone. Grim, even.

Whatever was wrong, she knew it couldn't be about her. She was clear-headed and free of pain, only slightly wobbly while she got out of bed and walked over to the window to open the curtains. For several breaths, she basked in the bright morning sunshine, unfazed by the decaying factory that made up most of her view. At this moment, everything seemed beautiful to her, and her one wish was to be in her own clothes so she could look as good as she felt. There was a mirror on the small dresser nearby, its surface spotted with age, and when Cora glanced at her reflection, she wished for a hairbrush as well. Just as she started fussing with her appearance, someone knocked on the bedroom door.

Hayes stepped inside carrying coffee and a plate filled with enough eggs and buttered toast for two. He had changed his clothes and looked freshly shaven but already seemed tired. Some of the tension left his body when he saw her. "Minnie told me you were awake. How are you feeling?"

She beamed. "Wonderful. Although I suppose I should still be in bed."

He winked while setting the food on the table. "I won't snitch."

Within a minute, he had moved the table and chair so that they could sit across from each other comfortably. She sank into the easy intimacy of sharing a plate with him, not even minding how the old-fashioned nightgown left her as modest as a nun.

As she bit into a piece of toast, Hayes said, "Minnie will visit later to check your mind for any lingering effects left by the sigil. Are you comfortable with that? Plenty of people don't like the idea of someone digging through their thoughts."

"I always say whatever is on my mind. It's one of my few good habits. Besides, the whole city knows all about me. There's probably nothing left for a mind reader to uncover. To be honest, I'm not thinking about the sigil at all."

He tilted his head, one of those wolfish movements that she loved seeing. "If not that, then what?"

She studied him. His rough desperation from the night before had calmed into his usual steadiness, but the playful glint to his eyes was still missing. He sat in his chair like someone ready to jump up at the first sign of danger, and there was a grim set to his mouth that she recognized.

After a moment, she ran a hand along his arm. When the muscles beneath her fingers relaxed in response, she said, "Hayes, what's happening? You have that certain look that only comes out when you're thinking about your old pack."

"I didn't realize it was that obvious." Then he sighed and finished his coffee. "How much did you hear about the Saxbys while living with your father?"

"Not much at all. Father wouldn't let me read the papers. All I know for certain is that the Saxby alpha-king met with city officials and attacked them. Captain Dempsey and the police commissioner were shot but survived. I don't know what happened to any of the wolves."

"The alpha-king escaped. The captain of his royal guard was caught and arrested. The others all died."

"But I thought their captain was..." Then she hesitated. She remembered the she-wolf's name perfectly well but didn't want to press on an old scar from his past.

He finished the sentence for her. "Isabelle. She was the one who shot both Al and Commissioner Keene."

"Oh, Hayes. I'm sorry." Her fingers still rested against his arm, and now they moved down to squeeze his hand. She didn't care about politics but wasn't completely clueless about them. No city official would take an attempt on his life lightly. The she-wolf surely faced a noose unless... "Is the alpha-king fighting to charge and try her in his own legal system?"