Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

The night air was sweet compared to the nightclub, and I breathed deep, letting it fill my lungs and sweep away the foulness. Blood still rode the wind, but that was natural, especially since a lot of it was now on me

What I needed was a nice hot shower. I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed home barefoot

But I'd barely gone a dozen steps when the wrongness hit again, this time stronger than before

I stopped and looked over my shoulder. What the hell was going on? Why was I feeling this when the situation inside the club had been sorted?

Then it hit me

The wrongness wasn't coming from the club or the night. It was coming from a more distant place. A more personal place. A place that was forged from the bond of twins

My brother was in trouble Panic surged. Ten guardians had disappeared under suspicious circumstances in the last few months, and only two of them had been found. Or rather, only bits of two of them had been found. I swallowed heavily. My twin couldn't  be the eleventh. He was the only family I had left since our pack had thrown us out. He was the only person who meant anything to me, the one person I couldn't live without. Losing him would kill me as surely as a silver bullet

I took a deep breath and tried to calm my fears. Rhoan wasn't hurt, and he wasn't dying, because I'd have felt either of those

He was just in some form of trouble, and, my fault or not, he'd been in trouble most of his life. He could handle it, whatever it was

The last thing I needed to do was panic. But I could check. I retrieved my cell phone, pressed the vid button, then quickly dialed my boss, Jack Parnell. He was the current head of the guardian division, and one of the few vampires I actually liked. The other, Kelly, was a guardian and one of my few friends. Not only were they both nice, but they actually bathed like regular people

Jack's bald features came online. He gave me a toothy grin, but there was an intentness in his green eyes that belied his jovial expression

"Nice to see you're unhurt after your evening jaunt," he said, his tone cheerful and gravelly. "I'll expect your report in the morning."

"I'll write it up at home and e-mail it in. Tell me, have you heard from Rhoan?"

"About two hours ago. Why?"

I hesitated. I had to be careful what I said, because no one at the Directorate knew Rhoan and I were related, let alone twins. The fact that we shared the same last name was no clue, simply because every individual in a wolf pack shared the same surname. So everyone in our pack, related or not, had Jenson as a last name. And whenever someone new came into the pack, they legally changed their names to the pack name. It was the one way to differentiate origins between packs that shared the same coat color

Most of those at the Directorate actually presumed we were lovers simply because we lived together - a theory neither of us corrected because it was far easier on us if they believed that. Of course, if they actually knew anything about Rhoan, they would have realized how unlikely our being lovers was

I wasn't sure what Jack believed - he'd never said anything about the two of us, never asked anything about our situation. He gave the appearance of not caring either way, but after working for him for six years, I knew that was never the case

"You're aware that werewolves often know when pack mates are in trouble?"

He simply nodded

"Well, I've got that feeling now, with Rhoan."

"Life-or-death-type trouble?"

"No."

"Is he injured in any way?"

"No. Not yet."

He frowned. "So you simply feel he is in trouble?"

"Yes." Felt it through every fiber, and as strongly as I could feel the heat of the moon

"I don't disbelieve you, Riley, but as he's not overdue, I prefer to wait. The mission he's on is a delicate one, and sending rescuers in could make the whole thing fall apart."

Like I cared about anything but my brother...

I took another deep breath and blew it out slowly. "But given the other disappearances, isn't it worth checking?"

"The others disappeared from a specific area. Rhoan's mission shouldn't take him anywhere near it."