Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne (best biographies to read .txt) 📕

could if I wanted, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to argue with him. I’d had enough tension for one night. Right now, being in his arms was as relaxing as getting a massage at my mother’s spa.

“Listen, last night—when I kissed you,” he said softly, “I’m sorry if I upset you. I was just so scared when I saw that cougar…I just needed more than to hold you, to know you were okay. If I’d been able to talk to you right after, it might have been different, but what I was feeling…it had been building—”

“It’s okay.” I cut him off before he said something that either of us would regret.

He pressed a kiss to my forehead, then reluctantly, he released his hold on me and stepped back. “Well, like I said, I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I headed out.”

“Where are you going?”

“To find that lab.”

My heart hammered against my chest. “Are Connor and Lucas going with you?”

“No, they’ve gone to meet with the elders. They’ll be back sometime tomorrow. I’m leaving now.”

“I want to go with you.”

“No, it’s too dangerous.”

“Rafe, I feel like it’s my fault Dallas is dead. I’ll go search for the lab by myself if I have to.”

He released a frustrated sigh. “Lindsey, this isn’t going to be like leaving camp to look for blackberries.”

“I know that. I want to do this.”

“Connor won’t like it.”

Connor was the one who’d told me that maybe I needed to go out with Rafe. I knew that this wasn’t what he had in mind, but still, he couldn’t get too angry at me. This way, I could help as well as spend a little time with Rafe, as he’d suggested. “I have to do this.”

Rafe paused for what seemed like a long time.

“Okay. You’ve got ten minutes to pack.”

Nodding, I reached back for the door.

“Lindsey?”

I glanced back over my shoulder at him.

“Do you ever wonder if it’s worth it—the price we pay to keep our existence a secret?”

“I wonder a lot of things, Rafe.” Mostly about you and me and what this strong feeling truly is that I hold for you. Is it infatuation with the forbidden? Or is it something more?

ELEVEN

It’s not easy to sneak out of your cabin when one of your roommates has recently had her first transformation and her senses are heightened.

“What are you doing?” Kayla asked sleepily as she sat up.

I hadn’t turned on a light, but an outside light that lit the area seeped into our room through the curtained window as I packed my things. “Nothing. Go back to sleep.”

“Obviously something is up.”

During the past year, Kayla had become my best friend while my relationship with Brittany had started to become as strained as the one I had with Connor. I knew someone needed to know where I was going, and I believed I could trust her. “I’m going with Rafe to look for the hidden lab.”

The bedroom lamp suddenly came on, and Kayla was staring at me through narrowed eyes. “We’re supposed to take out another group tomorrow.”

“They’re bird watchers. They’re only here for the day. You’ll be fine without me.”

She combed her fingers through her thick, curly red hair and shook it out. “Rafe could probably search faster without you, don’t you think?”

She was right; he could. Would I be hindering him? Was it really my desire to help that had me volunteering to go with him? Or was it something more selfish than that?

“I’m feeling guilty about Dallas. I didn’t really trust him, but he may have died because he was bringing us information.”

“This is me, Lindsey. The truth?”

“That is the truth. Just not all of it.” I sighed and looked at my watch. I only had a few minutes, but I really needed to share all these doubts I had about my destined mate. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I tried to calm my pounding heart. I’d never said this out loud to anyone—not even to myself. Facing my true feelings was terrifying. “Kayla, lately I can’t stop thinking about Rafe. I have these intense dreams about him. And last night he kissed me.”

“In your dream?”

I shook my head. “No—for real. And it was…amazing. Powerful. Feral. I don’t want to hurt Connor, but I need to figure out what it is I’m feeling for Rafe. It’s not like anything I’ve ever experienced before. It fills me with wonder but at the same time it terrifies me.”

“Do you love Connor?”

I dropped my head back and stared at the planks in the ceiling, imagining I could see Connor’s face in a knot in the wood. “I do, but…”

“But…?”

I lowered my gaze to meet hers. “What’s it like to love Lucas?”

Her brow pleated. “Intense. Consuming. I have no doubt that he’s my mate.”

“That’s my problem. I care for Connor, but I do have doubts. And he knows it. We were fighting about it right before we found Dallas. He wants me to confront whatever it is I’m feeling for Rafe, but I can’t do that without spending time with Rafe. And the full moon…it’s not going to wait for me to decide. It’s going to come—soon—and I have to know. Maybe a few days in the woods with Rafe will help me figure out what I feel for both of them. And we’ll be doing something good at the same time.”

“Lindsey, this is reckless. It’s way too dangerous.”

It was—in so many ways.

“I know, but I have to take the risk.” Not only to find the lab, but also to discover what was truly in my heart.

“What if you decide…and it’s not Connor?”

I felt a painful tightness in my chest. I didn’t want to hurt him. “Would it be fair to him if I accept him as my mate, but I didn’t love him like you love Lucas?”

Kayla got up,