Moon Claimed (Werewolf Dens #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,1
up the phone at their leisure.
Roderick’s lips twitched. “Very well.”
The call was scheduled for 10:00 a.m.
10:01. A phone symbol appeared on the large blue screen before us.
My heart leaped into my throat. I’d asked Rhona if she was ready.
Was I?
Sascha and I hadn’t faced each other since the will reading. What would he do? He could reveal everything about the breeding meets and our mating, which would see me firmly booted from this job. My only security was that he wanted to be my sperm donor.
Jesus, Dr Phil would have a field day with this shit.
Hardening my expression, I listened to the phone ring for the fifth time.
Seven.
Nine.
“Answer,” I said calmly.
Roderick did the honours, and the fucker himself appeared on the screen.
His gaze found me.
I took in his scraggly shoulder-length brown hair and liquid-honey eyes. The asshole stood front and middle of his team, and I broke our staredown to look at Leroy, Hairy, Mandy, Grim, and Lisa. Alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and omega.
“Luther,” I said.
Mandy’s eyes narrowed.
I had no fucks to give her. She’d have to pre-order one.
“Miss Thana.” The smooth syrup of his voice trickled in warm, slow drips down my back.
Yeah, the meets we’d completed so far did a few things to me. Each time, I felt more. The capture meet had ramped things up again.
I fisted my hands beneath the table. Focus. Sascha was far more experienced at swordplay. I couldn’t dance with this monster. Best get to the point. “We’ve made our choice for the next grid.”
We lost Sandstone by a few points but won the grid back as reparation for Herc’s murder, so the choice for Wednesday’s battle was all ours.
My choice was an unusual one.
The werewolf considered me.
What did he see? Hair that should have been washed three days ago, dark circles under my emerald eyes, and a gaunt expression because I was too heartsick and stressed to eat?
“What’s the decision of the head steward?” Gravel entered his voice.
My ire swelled for Greyson’s—my nickname for his wolf—presence in the meeting. Sascha and Greyson were one and the same, but Greyson led the capture meet. He’d been in charge when Herc ran to save me. He was the murderer.
Yes, I blamed Sascha.
I blamed Greyson more.
A smile graced my lips. “We’ll see your pack in Water.”
Nothing betrayed his surprise. I mean, the Luthers currently held three grids—Water, Clay, and Timber—so my choice wasn’t groundbreaking, but traditionally, we were weakest in Water closely followed by Clay. Therefore, the tribe usually chose Timber first.
I’d played the game in two grids so far—three if you counted my unlucky experience with the fake laser tag in the forest.
Water was our biggest weakness. I had to know it better.
“Very well,” Sascha replied. “The game will fall outside of the new moon this month. Three days after.”
The wolves’ power had everything to do with the sun. At the new moon, when sunlight wasn’t reflected off the moon, the Luthers became most volatile. “The game will obviously go ahead.”
“Obviously.” The gravel in his voice strengthened. I couldn’t glean a thing from his expression, but his eyes didn’t shift from mine. If he had a straw in his mouth, I’d say he was drinking me in.
“Unless there’s another obvious point you’d like to make, Luther, there are other places I’d like to be.”
Leroy’s eyes narrowed, but Hairy nudged him like a good little beta.
“Until Wednesday, Miss Booker.” Honey eyes bore into me.
My chest tightened. Never again. I’d never let myself fall for those eyes again. “I go by Miss Thana.”
I nodded at Roderick, and the screen blanked, cutting off Sascha’s reply.
Twisting, I eyed Rhona’s murderous grip on the armrests. “You alright?”
“I killed him ten times in my mind.”
“Therapeutic.”
Her mouth crooked in a smile. “It will tide me over until I can do the real thing.”
My stomach twisted, and I ignored the magic voodoo telling me Sascha’s death should be avoided at all costs, even with my own life.
“Now to win a grid we’ve never won,” my sister murmured.
I stood. “Win? No. Learn? Yes.”
Luck wouldn’t help me destroy Sascha Greyson. And I didn’t want to win with luck. No.
When the Luther pack went down, it would be because I controlled the puppet strings.
2
I stared at my buzzing phone.
Unknown number.
We need to talk
I strongly disagreed.
Sascha had shown his true colours, and I could only feel stupid for believing some of his act. I never had a problem with the wolves before, not really. Part of me even felt for their situation at one stage.