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

ribs crack. Cain didn’t even have time to cry out.
    But all werewolves could sponge up damage and keep going. Cain was no exception.
    He flipped Abel over onto his back and squeezed his throat. Blood streamed down his lips.
    Abel knocked his arms off and threw Cain across the shipping container. The impact of his body dented the metal. The shipping container rocked with the strength of their struggle, and Abel thought he felt the semi swerve.
    “Come on,” Cain said with his back against the wall. He snorted up a wad of blood and phlegm and spit it out again. “You’re supposed to be tough.”
    “Tough?” Abel asked, and he laughed. It made his ribs creak.
    Then he plunged a thumb into Cain’s eye.
    Cain roared with pain, clapping his hands over his face as he fell to his knees.
    Abel scrambled to the back door and delivered a swift kick to the place he knew the latch had to be. Metal snapped. The door’s springs engaged, and it rolled open.
    Highway stretched behind him. They were already out of California again and across another state. It looked like the route toward the Gresham Ranch.
    Cain staggered to his feet. “Don’t you—” he began.
    Abel jumped.
    He angled for the side of the road, but his shoulder still struck pavement.
    And then he was flying.
    Abel had an instant to stare up at the cold blue sky and realize that he had been struck by one of the cars behind the semi.
    His body bounced on a windshield. Glass fractured. He tried to grab something—anything—but the momentum pushed him off the back of the car and onto the road again.
    Brakes squealed. Abel tasted rubber. Immense pressure crushed him against the pavement.
    His body burned with the healing fever as soon as the injuries were inflicted, making him seize and shake. Two cars—he had been hit by two cars, and he was still in the middle of the road. But he couldn’t get up. Couldn’t make his shattered legs work.
    He threw his weight to the side and rolled onto the shoulder just in time to feel another car blow past him. His arm slid over shattered glass, and then he was surrounded by prickly bushes and the smell of sage.
    Abel was a mess of pain. One big bruise. It felt like every single bone was broken.
    “Heal,” he groaned to himself. “Goddammit, heal .”
    He had to get up before Cain came around for him again. Had to make a run for it, and find Rylie before she got hurt.
    But he hadn’t been able to eat much lately, and it made his bones knit back together too slowly. Abel gritted his teeth and tried to pop his shoulder into place. Pain scythed through his chest. He roared.
    Footsteps crunched toward him.
    Abel looked up, and he saw his ugly excuse of a half-brother standing over him, arms crossed and right eye a mess of blood. He was flanked by three men in black shirts. “Now, don’t you feel stupid?” Cain asked. He jerked his thumb at his men. “Put him back in the truck.”

F IVE
    Collusion
    When Gwyn and Rylie returned to the kitchen, they were both smiling. “Sunday,” Rylie said. “We’re going to get married on Sunday.”
    Seth was finished doing the dishes. He rinsed the soapy water off of his uninjured hand and dried it on a towel. “We are? This Sunday?”
    “Yeah. Gwyn says we can have it together by then. She’s going to take care of everything.” Rylie’s cheeks were pink.
    “You’re welcome,” Gwyneth said as she stuffed her feet into cowboy boots, threw on a denim jacket, and grabbed her keys off the hook. “Walk us out to the truck, wonder boy.”
    He headed outside with his arm around Rylie’s shoulders. The snow had stopped, but it was chilly, and she looked so beautiful with her cheeks rosy and hair tucked into the collar of her jacket.
    “Do you want to come?” Rylie asked Seth as she climbed into the front seat of the truck.
    Gwyn responded for him. “We’re heading down to the dress shop and the florist. This isn’t groom business. Don’t worry, there’s going to be plenty for