What The Blood Moon Remembers

The room was dim. Lit only by the city glow through open curtains. In the centre of the room were two shadowy figures. It took her exactly one second to understand what she was looking at, and the rest of her life to un-know it.

"How long?"

Amara's voice barely rose above the music drifting through the open bedroom windows.

Darius froze.

For one humiliating second, nobody moved. Naomi remained on her knees beside him, her hands on his open shirt. His hair was dishevelled.

Then Naomi scrambled to her feet, pressing a remote that lit up the room.

"Amara—" Naomi stammered.

"Don't."

The word came out so sharply that Naomi stopped.

Darius reached for his shirt. "Baby, listen to me. It's—not what you think"

Amara stared at him.

Baby?

He still had the audacity to call her baby?

"How long have you been sleeping with my cousin?"

"It's not what you think."

A strange laugh escaped her.

"Really? Then maybe you can explain what I'm looking at."

"Amara, please. We can talk about this privately."

"Privately?" She glanced at Naomi. "You seem to have had no problem making it public enough for me to walk in on."

Naomi's eyes filled with tears. "I didn't mean for you to find out like this."

Amara turned towards her slowly.

"You didn't mean for me to find out?"

"I—"

"How considerate of you."

Darius stepped between them. "Enough. You're making a scene."

Amara looked at him as though she had never seen him before.

A scene.

That was what bothered him.

Not the fact that he had betrayed her. Not that he had chosen her own cousin. Not even that he had done it on the night they were supposed to celebrate their future together.

He was worried about her making a scene. She took a deep breath and tried to make her way towards the door until Darius blocked her way with his solid mass.

"Move, Darius."

"You're upset. I understand that, but you need to calm down."

"Move."

"Amara—"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Her shout silenced the room.

Darius stepped aside.

She walked past him without another word. The door slammed behind her, loud enough to be heard over her own ragged breathing.

She didn't remember descending the stairs. She barely remembered crossing the corridor. All she knew was that she couldn't stay in that building for another second.

The ballroom was still alive with laughter and music. Five hundred guests were celebrating an engagement that was already over.

She could feel their eyes following her.

She refused to cry. Not here. Not in front of five hundred witnesses. Not for him.

She pushed through the crowd, shouldering past a cluster of Darius's business associates who turned to stare. Somewhere above her, through the ballroom skylights, the moon hung full and heavy, its rim edged faintly red. A blood moon.

Every few years, a moon like this stirred something in the wolves beneath it. Old stories said it made their skin feel too tight for their bones.

Amara had never understood those stories.

Until tonight.

Her wolf was already raw from the betrayal. Now, under that moon, it simply broke open.

Not here, she thought. Please, not here.

She reached a side exit with unsteady steps. The door opened into a dim corridor, and she stumbled through, desperate for a moment away from the noise.

The door shut behind her.

Only then did her knees weaken.

Amara caught herself against the wall, one hand pressed to her chest. A strange heat had begun to spread beneath her skin, deep behind her sternum, then lower, through her stomach.

"Not now," she whispered.

Her wolf was restless.

She pushed away from the wall. She needed air. Space. Somewhere she could think without hearing Darius's excuses or Naomi's pathetic apologies.

But the heat followed her.

It spread through her body, tightening her skin, making every breath feel unfamiliar. Grief and humiliation were still there, buried somewhere beneath it, but something louder was rising to the surface. Something with teeth.

She turned the corner too quickly.

And walked directly into several hundred pounds of very solid, very still man.

A solid chest stopped her fall. Strong hands caught her by the arms.

"Easy." He said, voice, deep and thrilling.

Amara gasped.

The stranger was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in dark, immaculate clothing. She barely registered any of it. Her attention was caught by the strange stillness that settled over her the instant his hands touched her.

The corridor seemed to tilt.

Her breath caught. The heat beneath her skin surged, then changed into something she couldn't name.

She looked up.

Pale silver eyes stared back at her.

Something in his expression had shifted. Surprise widened his gaze, and his grip on her arms tightened as though he, too, had felt whatever had just passed between them.

Amara tried to pull away, but her body seemed unwilling to obey.

Her wolf surged beneath her skin, responding to the stranger with an intensity she had never experienced. At the same instant, the mate bond snapped into place, invisible strings binding them together, drawing them towards each other with an irresistible force.

Surprised, she lifted her eyes to meet his.

Mate.