Moon Glamour Aimee Easterling (reading women TXT) 📖

was the weedy backside that I’d never had time to explore previously. Multiple Jeeps waited, old and dilapidated. Fallen leaves slicked their interiors.

But when Tank entered the boathouse and emerged with a key, the engine of the one he tried sprang to life.

There was no top, but Tank rustled up two knitted caps, one for each of us. Mine physically warmed me, but did nothing to soothe the fury whipping through my veins.

This was bullshit. I wasn’t going to be taken away like my sixteen-year-old sister, locked in a room for my own safety until Halloween was past.

If I’d spoken, my words would have cut like daggers. So it was probably a good thing that the fabric and the wind made it impossible to speak.

Impossible to do anything, really, other than dwell on my failure. Yes, Butch was alive, but only barely. And I was drawing Tank away from the battle, forcing him into the role of bodyguard to the Samhain Shifters’ weakest link.

Marina would win, and it would be my fault. Well, my fault plus Lupe’s and Tank’s for being idiots....

As if he could feel my thoughts rising to a boil, Tank pulled over. Shut off the engine.

The silence was as dark as the night.

“You need to go back...” I started just as Tank said:

“What do you know about...?”

We both stopped, waiting for the other to continue. And even though I wanted to slap him, I swallowed down my anger and ceded the floor. “You first.”

I expected Tank to tell me where I was being taken, why this was all for the best. Instead, he rumbled out a question. “What do you know about the McCallister pack?”

His eyes reflected moonlight. Not lupine. Entirely human.

I cocked my head. “Why?”

Tank coughed out the faintest hint of a laugh. “I got the impression you weren’t ready to be done with this.”

He was making no sense. “And I got the impression you were willing to let the fae cross over in order to protect me.”

“I am. I will. If that’s what you want.”

But...it wasn’t. Of course it wasn’t. “No,” I shook my head. “I want to win this.”

And Tank smiled, all twisted scars and glinting wolf teeth. He was big and scary and completely magnificent.

“Alright then. What do you know about the McCallister pack?”

Chapter 35

What I knew was that their compound was a fortress. Rowan ruled with an iron fist and most of his pack obeyed without question. Still, my time there had uncovered a single weak link.

I waited to make the call until we were ensconced in a railway sleeper car. A safe haven that kept us moving and out of Marina’s reach while providing a little breathing space.

By this point, it was long past midnight. But my contact answered on the first ring anyway.

“McCallister residence. How may I help you?”

As I’d suspected, Jasmine was in charge of the landline listed in the phone book in addition to monitoring internal phone calls. Now, the question was, had I misread her annoyance with her brother’s management of the clan?

“Jasmine. This is Athena.”

Beside me, Tank waited in absolute silence. He hadn’t argued for or against this tactic. Had merely bowed his head when I suggested it and swung into Walmart in search of a burner phone.

A burner phone...that could still give away our location if Jasmine possessed the know-how to trace satellite linkages. Sure, we were currently an hour’s drive from Rowan’s center of operations. But we were still within pack territory. For all I knew, he had wolves stationed this far out.

Ten seconds ticked by. Twenty. I pulled the phone away from my ear, preparing to hang up and cut my losses....

“No, I’m afraid we didn’t plan a delivery for today,” Jasmine said at last.

“Someone can hear you,” I observed. “But they can’t hear me?”

“Yes, exactly.” Her voice was as warm as I remembered it. And, this time, it vibrated with mischief.

So I took the chance. “You can’t be happy with what’s going on in your pack.”

“I’m not happy with it.” Jasmine’s initial words were fierce before she scaled them back for the benefit of her eavesdroppers. “But that’s acceptable. I can work with that.”

“It’s going to get much worse Wednesday night,” I warned her. “Tank and I want to make it better. But we need your help.”

Another pause, during which I wondered how I’d ever thought myself able to talk this woman around during a five-minute phone conversation. I was asking her to betray her pack and her brother. Of course she’d turn me down flat.

Instead, she hit me with a question. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting that you help Tank enter your compound. If we have eyes inside, we might be able to end this before Samhain. Shut down the harem. Turn your clan into a cohesive pack.”

Could werewolves smell truth over the phone? I held my breath, hoping my earnestness had transmitted.

And, whatever the reason, Jasmine agreed with me. “I can pick up the package tomorrow. Just tell me the time and place.”

THE SEATS IN OUR SLEEPER compartment folded down into a bed. One bed. Barely large enough for two, if you liked each other very much.

There was no couch to retreat to this time. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when Tank slipped back into the shoes he’d unlaced the moment we entered our compartment. “I’ll be in the dining car.”

That would have been the safe route. The smart route.

But I was feeling neither safe nor smart.

Instead, I reached up and grabbed his lapels, halting his forward momentum. “Wait.”

His eyes struck mine like a physical blow. My breath caught in my throat.

“I’m not that much of a gentleman,” Tank growled. “Last time, you were exhausted and wounded. This time, if you ask me to stay....”

“I’m not asking. I’m telling.”

The words carried us all the way to the bed.

Once there, I expected him to pounce, to push, to hurry us forward. After all, Tank’s eyes were full of wolf. His skin smelled wild.

Instead, he