Secrets in the Moon (Crescent City Werewolves #1)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cora played with the sash of her robe while waiting through the distant tolling of the city's clock tower. Eight in the evening, and from the quiet of the house, she was the only one up and waiting for Hayes. She thought he'd come back to Minnie's for the night. At least, she hoped he would.

The fire in the hearth crackled when she stirred it up, desperate for something to do. At the muffled noise of the front door downstairs opening and shutting, she brightened until she heard a male voice that wasn't Hayes'. One of the other wolves, she supposed, and received confirmation a few moments later when a female voice in the bedroom beneath hers greeted him. The house fell silent once more.

Finally, nearly half an hour later, she heard the door again, and this time she recognized the tread of the footsteps. Unable to resist, she slipped out of her room and down the stairs barefoot, moving for the soft clink of a coffee cup being drawn down from the cupboard.

By the time she reached the parlor, she found Hayes in one of the chairs by the fireplace. He sat on its edge with the coffee cup in one hand, watching the flames while their flickering outlined him in gold. He looked tired and absent, but the moment she stepped into the room, he turned toward her, eyes sharpening with surprise. "You're still up."

She smiled, keeping her voice soft while settling on the floor near the hearth, not liking how the other chairs would leave her unable to face him. "I heard you arrive."

"Sorry. I was trying to be quiet."

"Don't be. I listened for you. I was worried."

Their eyes met for a long moment before he returned his attention to the fire. Then he sighed, and his broad shoulders sank as if burdened by a great weight. "Isabelle's execution."

She nodded, shifting enough to brush a hand over his while he gripped the mug. "Minnie told me after I kept pestering her about why you left. If you'd rather be alone..."

"No." He finished his coffee and set it aside to join her at the hearth, leaving them close enough that she could see the day's worth of stubble on his jaw. "No, I wouldn't."

Her hand found his forearm, stroking along the tense muscle there. Now she could see a tired relief in his eyes, and when he spoke again, she sensed the words had long lived in his heart unsaid. "There's nothing to grieve for. We hated each other for years. But seeing the end today took me back to the beginning, too. It's hard to think about when we had just become mates. How our future—and the pack's future—seemed so sure."

"You were in love," said Cora, gently.

He smiled, but it was humorless. "I don't know. It felt like it at the time. Then I found out what she was willing to do and realized I was the dumbest fella alive."

Then he looked at her. "The day we met, you asked why I left the pack. Are you still curious?"

When she nodded, he continued. "Isabelle was part of the reason. She was the personal guard of the alpha-king's youngest daughter, who was about to be married to the alpha-prince of a rival pack. I was told to investigate the prince for any flaws and soon found he was insane and had killed others close to him before. I warned Alpha-king Saxby, but he told me to forget what I had found. To tell no one. The original plans of marrying off his daughter for an alliance wouldn't change. We were sending her to her death. Her own father hoped for it. In a pack, there's no higher word than the king's, but I had to do something. I trusted Isabelle with the truth and a plan to help the princess escape before she traveled to the other pack."

Then Hayes stopped and rubbed the back of his neck. The wildness of his eyes had nothing to do with the reflected light from the fire as he stared into the flames.