Red Rose Moon (Seasons of the Moon) Read Free Page A

be a fairly nice guy.
    Nice or not, Cain was polite. He made sure that Abel was comfortable as his men trussed him up and put him in the back of a semi. There were even blankets waiting so that he wouldn’t get cold in the shipping container. And after a few hours of driving, they untied him long enough so he could walk around and take a piss—though they never took their guns off of him, even for a moment.
    There was no mistaking Cain as nice, though. His men were afraid of him. It showed in every glance and gesture. A nice guy didn’t give people a reason to fear him like that.
    After their pit stop, the engine groaned to life. The semi began to move.
    Cain sat down cross-legged in front of Abel once the back door of the semi was closed again. The shipping container was empty aside from the two men. “You’re being awfully compliant,” Cain said.
    “That’s because I’m thinking about how much enjoyment I’m gonna get from killing you,” Abel said. And because he had spent the last two hours wearing down his ropes so that he could break free, but he wasn’t quite there yet. “Where’s Eleanor?”
    “She’s resting at home,” Cain said, sweeping his coarse golden curls out of his face with a gesture that eerily resembled Seth. “She’s not doing well.”
    “Good,” Abel said.
    Rage darkened Cain’s features, and Abel prepared for what he knew had to be coming—the same kinds of torture Seth had endured at the hands of Cain’s followers. But the other man didn’t make a move to touch him.
    Unfortunately, not all torture was physical.
    “Eleanor never loved you,” Cain said.
    Abel clamped his mouth shut and didn’t take the bait. His wrists, tethered behind his back, were almost free.
    “I grew up alone, Abel,” Cain went on. “I never knew the warmth of a mother’s love.”
    Abel barked a laugh. “And you think you’ll get it from Eleanor?”
    “I already do. She’s the family I’ve always longed for. And you—you tried to kill her.”
    “Tried? I thought we did a pretty good job,” Abel said. The tension on his wrists slackened. He was free. He didn’t move or show any other sign of it.
    Anger flashed across Cain’s face. “Seth doesn’t love you, either.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “He took the woman you love.”
    “Seth got there first.” Abel tried to make it sound like that didn’t bother him, but a smile spread on Cain’s lips. He knew that he had struck a nerve.
    “Seth has everything. He has an education. The ability to better himself. A future. And now Rylie. How long do you think it’s going to be until they get married?” Abel’s hands clenched into fists behind his back. “You were the one that was there for Rylie while Seth went to college. But what do you have? Nothing. You are nothing.”
    He bristled. “I’m a hell of a lot more than that.”
    “Yeah? What have you got going for you? I’m dying to hear.”
    The problem was that Abel couldn’t think of any examples. Everything Cain said were the exact things that had been gnawing at him ever since he resigned himself to becoming a werewolf.
    He used to live for the goal of wiping out the species. That was so easy to focus on. So simple. All he had to do was hunt and kill.
    Then he was bitten, and everything changed.
    Now what did he have? A future running around on four legs every other week? It wasn’t like he could get a job. The only thing he knew how to do was kill.
    Cain’s eyes glimmered. “You tried to murder our mother. You deserve this ruined life.”
    “Deserve? I don’t know about that. I don’t do well with philosophical thinking,” Abel said. “Guess I’m not educated enough.”
    Cain chuckled. That was when Abel lunged.
    He unleashed the full power of the werewolf’s speed and strength and bowled Cain over.
    No mercy . Abel went straight for the sensitive zones—driving his knee into Cain’s gonads, slamming his hand into the bridge of his nose, pounding the solar plexus. He heard