Free Alpha Moon (The Cain Chronicles) (Seasons of the Moon) by SM Reine

climbed. Rylie skimmed each page, reading the terms, but the words seemed to blur. She had a hard time focusing past his scent. His adrenaline was increasing, along with his heart rate.
    Rylie’s pen hesitated on the last pages, which only lacked her signature, and his. The agreed figure was printed on a table at the top. “Oh,” she said, “I haven’t even paid you yet.”
    He laughed. “Oh. Yes.”
    “Let me go get it,” she said.
    “Have your friend get it,” Bert said quickly.
    Rylie frowned. “No…I think I’ll get it.”
    Before he could keep arguing with her, she jumped to the door, stepping into the waiting room.
    “Is it done?” Jessica asked.
    Rylie ignored her and went to Abel’s side. “Something’s up,” she said, dropping her voice to a whisper so that her mom wouldn’t hear. “He already had everything notarized, and he reeks of fear.”
    Abel didn’t look at her. “Union’s here.” He sounded so calm that, for a moment, Rylie wasn’t certain that she had heard him right.
    She swiveled to look out the window. Two black SUVs had just parked at the curb.
    Her heart hammered. “This was a trap. They’re going to arrest me.”
    “Who is ‘they’?” Jessica was right behind her.
    Rylie shut her eyes, trying to take deep breaths.
    Her mom had heard them.
    “Jessica,” she began, but she didn’t get a chance to finish.
    “Are those from the Office of Preternatural Affairs?” Jessica asked, stretching on her toes to look around Rylie’s head. “They’re all over the city, but I’m surprised to see them…” She trailed off, staring at her daughter hard, as if her brain had just caught up with what she had heard. “Why are you worried about the OPA arresting you?”
    A surge of dizziness overwhelmed Rylie. She grabbed Abel’s arm to keep standing.
    “I can explain,” Rylie whispered.
    “Why would they be after you , sweetheart?” Jessica asked again, louder this time, hands clutching her purse like a teddy bear. Even as she asked the question, Rylie could already see the dawning comprehension in Jessica’s eyes.
    “They’re werewolves,” Bert said, laughing hysterically from the door to his office. “Werewolves!”
    Abel tore away from Rylie, crossing the waiting room in a flash. He fisted Bert’s suit in both hands and lifted him off of the ground.
    “ What did you do? ” he roared, shaking Bert.
    “Abel, no!” Rylie shrieked. It wasn’t from fear of what he would do to Bert—it was the acute awareness that this right here, with Abel holding a man two feet off of the ground, shouting in his face, would be her mother’s first impression of werewolves. Because now she knew. She knew .
    Jessica backed away from Abel, shaking her head slowly. She fumbled for the doorknob.
    Rylie caught her mom’s arm. “You can’t go out there,” she said, locking the door and pulling the shades. “The Union’s waiting.”
    “But—”
    “ No , Mom!”
    Abel carried the real estate agent into his office. “Tell me!” he shouted, shaking Bert again, who was spluttering incoherently.
    “I saw the surveillance footage on the news—and when I saw you three having lunch at Poppy’s, I called the hotline. They told me to hold you. They said they would take care of it. That’s all I did!”
    Abel slammed Bert to the desk.
    “Finish signing the papers,” he growled. “And then thank whatever god gave life to a tiny-dicked weasel like you that I’m not making you sign in blood.”
    “Abel!” Rylie gasped.
    Bert wasn’t arguing. With his back flattened to the desk, he signed. Abel shot Rylie a look.
    “Finish it,” he said.
    She had no idea how legal paperwork signed under threat by werewolf could possibly be, but she signed. Everything was notarized. It was done. The land was hers.
    Abel tossed the envelope onto Bert’s chair, then dropped him. “Sit,” he said in a low growl, golden eyes dangerously bright.
    The front door rattled.
    A muffled voice said, “This