Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2) by Sam Hall (readict books .TXT) 📗

but the powerful puppet master who seemed to be able to take possession of all of us.

“He’s the Father,” Micah said, meeting our collective gaze head-on. “If she’s Mother Moon, he has to be Father Wolf. It makes sense. That’s how the legend goes, how we were created. From the Mother’s daughter and the Father’s wolves.”

“I’ve never heard of Father Wolf before,” I said.

“No, which makes me think trying this was a bloody stupid idea,” Zack said, rubbing a hand over his face. “I thought testing things out here might be safer, but it’s now obvious we can’t keep playing around. We need information.”

“Research,” Mason agreed. “You got any computers or tablets up in that fancy apartment of yours?”

“We do. We also need to find some local packs to talk to,” Zack said. “I’ll give Nicky a call, see if she can come in early and keep an eye on things here. I’m glad we didn’t schedule any classes for you today,” he said to me. “We might have to put that on the backburner for a bit.”

“No.” My jaw firmed. “I need to get back into things. I’ve built a good client base who are relying on me.”

“Then we schedule what we can around this. We need you more, Paige. All of us are drawn so strongly to you, we’re not going to be able to hold out for long, but each time one of us touches you, we don’t know if something’s going to happen.” Zack turned to Lorcan. “What was going through your head just then? What did you want to do?”

“I wanted to mark her, bite her. Right then, it was all I could think about. It felt like the whole world awaited me if I did just that. A need I’ve never felt rose and rose until that’s all I could think about.” Lorcan turned to me, looking so painfully vulnerable, it hurt to look at him. “I didn’t want to hurt you, but it just felt like if I marked you as mine, everything, literally everything, would be OK.”

“Then maybe you should.” Everyone looked around to see Micah regarding the group. “I did, and neither of us suffered for it. What would it hurt?”

“Because he wants it,” Declan said. “I dunno about you guys, but I’m pretty fucking done with shadowy forces manipulating us. Zack’s right—research, make contacts, start reaching out to people. Who runs the local wolf packs in this place?”

Zack’s eyes swivelled around to the men using the equipment on the gym floor.

“I’ll make some introductions.”

“How’s it going, Mick?” Zack said, approaching a man who was just stepping away from the bench press.

“You know how it is,” he replied with a grin, wiping the sweat streaming down his face. “Feel weak as a kitten straight afterwards, but the endorphins are pumping. Gotta get back up to my max weight again though. That time off, it shreds your gains. I tried the pack gym but…” He shook his head. “It’s uncomplicated here. Peace, quiet, focussed. No hierarchical shit.”

“That’s good to hear, mate.” He went to slap the other man on the shoulder, but they both grinned when they saw how sweaty Mick was. “Look, I found my pack when I was out of town.”

“Yeah?” Mick’s gaze switched to us. “That’s fucking awesome.”

“So I was wanting to talk to some of the local alphas, see how the politics of that works. Would you be able to make an introduction to your alpha?”

“Yeah, sure. Jake, he’s a hard arse, but he’s fair. Just giving you fair warning. Gimme your details, and I’ll ask him to give you a call.” Mick considered us again. “It can be tough, especially in the city. No clear boundaries between turfs and that. Anyway, you can talk to him and get the low down. So, no more lone wolf, huh?” His expression shifted to a more serious one. “Does that mean things are gonna change here?”

“Nah, I don’t want a territory or anything, just want to coexist peacefully, but I gotta know what to avoid so I don’t step on anyone’s toes.”

“Fair enough. I’ll let him know. They do have meetings, him and the other alphas. Maybe you can get in on that. Well, good to see you back, Paige. Sorry to hear about your dad.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “Have a good workout.”

“You’ve obviously got a lot of contacts here,” Mason said. “Any who might know anything about a nix?”

“Maybe.” Zack turned to look at me. “I’m gonna ask Margaret.”

Chapter 30

“Nix?” I watched Margaret’s nose wrinkle with a sinking heart.

Margaret was the master who’d taught me so much about fighting much bigger foes. Zack covered a lot of the basics, but once I had them under control, he passed my training onto her to take care of the details. He didn’t have to work with a massive size and weight difference but she did, and she knew how to turn that to her advantage. Her deep brown, almond-shaped eyes slid to me, and I frantically tried to decode what lived there. I didn’t want to see the rejection and revulsion I was sure would rise.

We sat in the lounge room of the new apartment, the other guys ostensibly working on their phones or the tablets Zack had procured, but they were keeping one ear open. Margaret shook her head.

“That’s a really old, outdated term for what Paige is, but I guess that doesn’t matter.”

“You knew?” I asked.

“Why else would Zack give you to me for training? He asked me many questions about our nature—”

“Our?” I went stock-still. “So you’re… Jian isn’t your only…” He was the only mate I’d seen her with. “Sorry, that’s none of my business.”

Her smile was slow and serene, like it always was.

“You can ask. I knew that this time would come, when you’d start to acknowledge and explore your nature. Zack pumped me for details constantly. From going into heat to taking new mates. Initially, I thought it was just a man trying to understand