Moon Glamour by Aimee Easterling (books to read to be successful TXT) 📕

flinched, my bed slat drooping between us. In the midst of everything, I’d let myself forget about the future. About the fact the Samhain Shifters would disband in a matter of hours, leaving me bound by Rowan’s whims.

Rowan’s whims weren’t likely to be very friendly, either. Not after I’d led an invasion onto his home turf.

Alternatively, if I accepted the veiled offer Tank had provided, I’d become bound by the whims of another alpha. An alpha I’d never met in person. Sure, Gunner had seemed like a nice guy over the telephone. He’d called in favors to build an army of reinforcements.

But that was for Tank’s sake. Not for mine.

“Or perhaps you want to work within the system. Win a debt of gratitude from your mate. If he owed you, he’d protect you.”

I’d been stung by a yellow jacket once as a child. The wound hurt, but the terrifying part was the swelling in my throat. The way it became difficult to breathe.

I could barely breathe now. Had enough air left in my lungs for one word, if I was lucky.

Out of the corner of one eye, I caught the flicker of motion as a fae scratched a long streak across Tank’s face. The cut was deep. The beginning of another scar?

“He’ll be even more hideous after this battle,” Marina mused. She almost looked like a yellow jacket. Her waist was slender, her eyes large. “But I can fix that for you....”

Pack, my wolf whispered, a thread of longing.

So I said it. The only thing I could say. Croaked out his name. “Tank.”

Marina smiled, the facial twitch thoroughly inhuman. The scent of rotting fruit was so strong now that it choked me. She thought I was making the choice she’d boxed me into. She thought she’d won.

But I wasn’t talking about Tank. I was talking to him. And he’d been listening, waiting for my cue.

The instant I spoke, he spun away from the fae. Toward Marina....

If fae had been wolves, at least one of the newcomers would have called out a warning to his mistress. The woman they were indebted to. The one who’d brought them over from the faery world.

But fae weren’t wolves. Instead, they watched, beautiful lips curving into beautiful smiles, ready for their debts to be zeroed out the easy way.

Meanwhile, Tank’s eyes met mine, a question. Did I want this? Was I ready to trust my fate and Harper’s fate to a pack with no fae-created safety net?

There was no question about it. I nodded.

And, like Ryder had admitted doing to his alpha, Tank stabbed Marina in the back.

Chapter 40

She collapsed around the blade, her body beginning to dissipate immediately. But I wasn’t done yet. I caught her, my hands on her shoulders, lowering her to the ground while I hissed into her ear.

“You owe me a boon.”

“Yes....” Her voice was a breath only. The scent, strangely, had sweetened, losing the rot it had held a moment earlier.

Ignoring the sweetness, I continued. “I want Butch’s true name left here when you return to the Otherworld. You’ll tell no one. Will forget it yourself.”

Marina’s body lightened in my grip with each breath she exhaled. Now, she seemed to weigh as little as Harper had when our mother died. There were mere seconds left to seal this bargain. Still, I kept talking, intent upon leaving no loophole.

“But do this only if you agree that it’s an equal trade for the gift I gave you. I want nothing left between us. Do you understand me?”

Marina nodded. “Ru—” she started.

I slapped my fingers over her mouth, not wanting the other fae to hear her. “Rune Pelletier,” she breathed against my fingers. “I release your true name.”

And then she was truly gone.

With the dissipation came a gust of wind so intense it knocked me forward. Tank’s blade only barely missed me as I was flung against his chest.

His sword and my bed slat clattered to the ground as his arms encircled me, cushioning me as we plummeted. The floor was hard beneath my back now. I could barely see curtains and papers and fae spinning around us, the roar of wind whipping everything toward the node.

Everything other than Tank...and me within his arms.

As we huddled there together, the wind’s roar grew distant. Not softer—air still slashed against every patch of exposed skin. Scarves and fae and feathers fluttered past us.

Instead, it was as if I’d driven up a mountain too quickly for my ears to equalize. The pressure grew unbearable, turning distant sound into a ringing awfulness.

Then, with a pop, the portal closed.

We lay there for a split second, regaining our breath. Me underneath, protected by Tank’s body. My face was tucked into the nook of his shoulder. Then...it wasn’t.

Cold air wedged between us as Tank was ripped upward. One moment he was my rock. The next, he was reeling backwards, something sharp menacing his throat....

Time seemed to freeze, the world coming back into total focus. Half of the final fae were gone, sucked back into the Otherworld along with Marina. But five had grabbed onto chairs and tables and draperies, resisting the pull.

Now, without the wind to contend with, four were retreating. Running for the open door Jasmine and her friends had left through moments earlier.

The fifth had chosen attack over retreat.

I couldn’t tell whether the being was a man or a woman. Maybe it was both, or neither. And that didn’t matter. Because its hands ended in claws as long as a grizzly bear’s. They raked at Tank’s exposed neck, barely missing. It wouldn’t miss a second time.

Rather than fighting back, Tank roared: “Athena! Don’t let them get away!”

As if I’d chase four fae who were currently harming no one and let this bear slay my partner.

The sword was too far away for me to reach. On the ground past the bear being. My bed slat was closer, but still four feet distant. No way I could scoop it up then rise fast enough to