Read Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6) for Free Online Page B

enough. He’d already been tempted on his laps around the yard
to shift, but if he did it before the full moon it would look
suspicious.
    The twenty-eighth birth moon was the most important
and special day for a therian. He should have been with his family,
celebrating. As the alpha’s son, the whole pack would have gone all
out for a huge party. Even with how the world had changed, they
would make something special. He would have shifted and gone
running with them all, fed, and then come back to party some
more.
    He’d been to a twenty-eighth birth moon celebration
when he was just a pup, right after he’d shifted to human for the
first time, and though he’d had to go to bed early since he was so
young, and a lot of the party was more adult-centered, he’d
remembered the buzz in the air, the excitement, and how he couldn’t
wait until his own twenty-eighth birth moon.
    It wasn’t turning out quite like he’d thought it
would. Though now, it was even more exciting, because it might mean
freedom and reuniting with his family, assuming he could find his
way back home.
    Noah went through the mental checklist of his escape
plan. He’d been forming it casually for years, but only more
specifically for the past three months. He was deep in thought when
he smelled her through the glass of his cell. The sweetest smell in
the universe.
    His nostrils flared. It couldn’t be.
    But it was.
    He would never forget that scent if he lived to be
two thousand. That scent was burned into his brain. That scent was
Sydney.
    “5856, congratulations, you have a new neighbor.
Meet 5857B. Isn’t she pretty?” The cheery robotic voice emphasized
the letter B too harshly, as if to say, Yes, 5857 is dead. We
killed him. This one might be next. Perhaps there will be a 5856B
as well.
    Not if Noah had anything to say about it. He growled
and looked down at his tattoo. If they laid a hand on her… If they
marked her in any way… He began to pace in the far-too-small cell
as a rage he’d never before felt began to build.
     
    ***
     
    Sydney retreated to the other end of the glass cube,
her back pressed against the farthest wall she could get from the
angry, growling guy with glowing, yellow eyes. Fur began to sprout
on his arms and fangs pushed through his gums. A voice came out
over the speakers.
    “ Be polite, 5856. We would like
this one to last a while.”
    Polite, yeah right. But the fur disappeared back
into his skin. The fangs receded, and his eyes went back to a
normal brown. She wasn’t sure how strong the glass was. Was it
shatterproof? Was she about to find out? What was he?
    He could be any number of therian breeds but
something inside her screamed “werewolf”. But the wolves she
remembered as a kid had all been nice. Not like this.
    Had he killed the last person in the cube she now
occupied? How had he gotten in? Had they let him in? So many
questions and way too much intense staring aimed at her.
    A few minutes passed, and someone
in a white lab coat came to her door. The glass slid open. The
woman in the coat had a friendly smile, but Sydney didn’t trust it.
Despite her recent road trip, she wasn’t that gullible. She knew the score now.
    She sniffed the air. Human. Magical human. She’d
never had blood from a magic user before, and she was sure she
wasn’t about to get it now. The only kind of blood she’d ever had
was regular human. It was all they’d been able to get.
    “ 5857B, if you’ll come with me
please.”
    “ S-Sydney. M-my name is
Sydney.”
    “ 5857B,” the woman repeated,
glancing at the clipboard in her hand as if it contained all
infallible knowledge. “Please, let’s not make this
difficult.”
    Sydney looked back to see 5856 growling some more
and followed the woman in the white coat out of the cube. Between
the two, she seemed to be the safer option.
    She was grateful for the silence
as they walked down the hall. It allowed her to digest
everything.
    Jacob had taken no chances with her