Red Moon Secrets (Deadly Beauties 3)

Just before Kane catches me, I feel tingling sensations spread over my body, tugging me from the inside-out, and stealing my breath. I'm being vaporized, but I don't feel Gage's arms around me.

I squeal when I materialize, only to see I'm surrounded by darkness and the smell of wood.

"Alyssa!" Kane and Gage both yell in unison as the music cuts out.

"Here!" I squeal, rapping fiercely on the wall I've somehow managed to become encased in. "Get me out!"

A fist slams into the wall beside me, and then more is ripped free until the hole is large enough for me to scramble out of. Kane's arms are around me as he pulls me out completely, and I shake in his embrace, shocked and confused.

"How did she do that?" he asks Gage who comes over to inspect my eyes.

"I have no idea," he murmurs before examining my bleeding hand that I must have scratched when I was trapped inside the wall. He points to it as he says, "She's obviously still mortal. This is so fucked up."

I slow my breathing as everyo

ne comes to gawk at me like some science-fiction monster. I shouldn't be able to vaporize. Not yet. Not until I'm immortal. How did I do it?

Sierra and Amy walk in carrying loads of groceries. When they stumble into the deadly silence, their eyes fall to the men of their coven for answers.

"We should get ready for the memorial," Kane says to me instead of answering their silent query.

He kisses the top of my head as we head into the bedroom. It's just one more thing for me to worry about. This is getting more confusing and impossible by the minute.

Chapter 10

Ashes to Ashes

Burying Thad's ashes wasn't an easy feat, considering it was the hardest I've ever cried. It's been three days, but it still weighs heavily on my mind.

I pull out my earplugs, doing my best not to disturb the sweet night stalker who is tangled around me. We've slept twice in my cage now. My cage. Those two words were never anything I thought I'd hear, or say, or think.

My life has become one big jumbled up pile of screwed-up.

"Hey," Kane says, nuzzling my neck with his sweet face, the two of us barely fitting on the small cot. He too removes his spell-laced earplugs.

I turn over, careful not to let myself tip over the edge, and I spiral around him, soaking in all of his incredible touch. "You don't have to sleep in here with me," I murmur, ignoring Sierra's snores from across the room.

It's not easy to sleep with two snarling, roaring, furious lycans during a red moon. Thank God for earplugs.

"I'm not letting you sleep in here alone. I don't know how Deke does it."

Thinking back to the full mouth of fangs that clashed against the bars over and over, I can see how Deke lets her sleep in there alone.

"You'll change your mind whenever I go Ms. Hyde again."

Though I'm joking, the weight in my words betrays me and shows my true fear. Kane goes on, keeping his encouraging facade in place.

"Well, Ms. Hyde happens to find me irresistible. And I think it's safe to say you don't change unless provoked somehow," he says, grinning while kissing against the line of my jaw.

He's good at distracting me.

"We don't know that. It's possible I've just been too tired to wig out."

The door to the downstairs opens, and the smell of bacon, eggs, and biscuits wafts through the air, making me lick my lips.

"Hungry?" Kane asks, smiling against my cheek.

My stomach growls as if in response, and he snickers.