Moon Dance
CHAPTER ONE
Cole Randall stared down at the phone number written on the piece of paper, and then he crumpled it with one hand. He wasn’t going to call Dana after all. He’d gotten her phone number from the Sullivan Foundation’s website. Even though she’d apparently taken extended maternity leave, she was still listed as a consultant for the Pack Liaison Branch, and her phone number was there for anyone to see.
For all Cole knew, it was a dead-end number, anyway. One that would connect to voicemail in an office. And he sure as hell wasn’t leaving her a message.
No, he wasn’t going to call her at all.
He didn’t owe her anything.
She’d played him. She and the other members of the SF had used his knowledge of Hunter’s Moon Farm for their own ends. They’d told him that he was pardoned, but they’d had no intention of ever letting him go free.
They were all hypocrites, and she was the worst of them.
Worst because he knew she felt it. Deep inside, she knew what it really meant to be a wolf, to be connected to trees and the dark sky and the fat, full moon. And still, she hid behind the structure of the SF, hid behind her whitewashed marriage to that boyscout Avery Brooks, hid behind their child together, their perfect, average family. She hid there and pretended she didn’t know. But she…
Oh, hell, maybe she didn’t know. Maybe Cole had always just wanted to believe that she did. He remembered whispering things into her naked skin, telling her how she felt. He thought he’d been revealing to her an inner self—the self she was too stubborn and frightened to face. But maybe he’d only been projecting onto her, making her over into something she had never been.
In the end, did it really matter what happened to her?
If she died, he’d be free.
And anyway, he already was free.
He hadn’t seen her in over two years, and he never thought about her anymore.
Right. Never.
Which was why, when he’d found out about Enoch’s plans, his first thought had been that he had to warn Dana.
Cole smoothed out the crumpled paper. He sighed. Fuck it. He was going to call her, wasn’t he?
He took a deep breath, and then he got out his phone. He dialed the numbers on the paper and put the phone to his ear.
He waited.
It rang.
It was going to be an office phone, wasn’t it? It was just going to go to voicemail after two more rings, and that would be that, and then—
“Hello?”
Cole was stricken at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t expected his stomach to turn over, his chest to feel tight. He couldn’t speak.
Silence on the other end.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Dana.” His voice came out choked.
More silence. And when she spoke again, her voice was different too. It had dropped to a whisper. “Cole?”
“You’re in danger,” he said. It was important to get it all out, just lay it out there for her. He didn’t want to catch up or exchange pleasantries. None of that mattered. When it came down to it, this woman hadn’t chosen him, had never even considered choosing him, even though he’d always been certain that—when it came to the two of them—there was no such thing as choice. They were meant to be, or so he’d thought. Something powerful drew them together, something deep and primal and bigger than anything else on earth. “You need to get out of there. You need to take your family and leave the eastern regional SF branch. It’s not safe there.”
“W-what?” She still sounded stunned. “Cole, what are you talking about?”
“You just need to leave.” And he needed to hang up now. He’d delivered his message, and there was no reason to stay on the line. But he didn’t. He wanted to hear her say something else. He wanted to listen to her speak for a little longer.
There was another voice, something muffled in the distance, coming through the receiver. “Who are you on the phone with?”
That would be Avery Brooks, wouldn’t it?
Dana’s voice. “Avery, can you hold on—”
“Randall?” Avery’s voice came on the line. “Is that you? I knew you weren’t dead, you asshole.”
Cole shut his eyes, gripping the phone tighter. Hang up, idiot. Hang up now.
“You don’t get to call her, you know,” said Avery. “She doesn’t want anything to do with you. You need to leave her alone—”
“Just get her out. Take your child and get out of the SF headquarters. It’s not safe there, and you’re all going to be killed if you don’t leave.” Cole jerked the phone away from his ear and forced himself to hang up.
His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was assailed by memories of Dana Gray. Her body chained up in his basement. Dragging a wet sponge over her skin. The way she responded to him, even then, even when she was afraid he was going to kill her.