Free GraceinMoonlight by Stephane Julian

move.”
    “Tell them I love them.”
    Kaisie leaned even closer, until she could barely focus on
him. “You can tell them yourself when we get home.”
    Home. She liked the sound of that. Even though she knew that
home was only temporary. That even though the lucani king had sent his
men after her children, it didn’t mean he’d let them stay forever.
    Not her, a former Mal pawn, or her daughter, a
full-blooded Mal . They’d have to run. Find somewhere to hide. Find…
    She let her eyes close then, too tired to keep them open any
longer.
    * * * * *
    “The bleeding’s stopped but I don’t know if it’ll be enough
until we get home,” John said. “She lost a lot of blood.”
    The pilot had gotten them into the air the second Duke had
shut the hatch and locked it. They hadn’t lost anyone but Kaine had a broken
front leg that would need to be set before she could shift. Seth had a few
broken ribs and Race’s face looked as if he’d taken a running leap into a stone
wall.
    Nothing life-threatening. Except for Grace.
    “She’s gonna need a transfusion when we get back,” John
continued. “I already contacted Dane and he’s calling Nica as well. But… It
might be too late, Kaisie. She lost a lot of fucking blood.”
    He understood what John was saying. He just refused to
believe she was going to die.
    He looked at Kyle, sitting on the other side of the aisle.
“How long until we land?”
    Kyle shook his head. “Another ninety minutes. At least.”
    She wouldn’t make it that long.
    Tinia’s teat. What the fuck should he do?
    Helplessness wasn’t a state he typically found himself in.
The last time he felt it was more than twenty-five years ago when Tekeias,
Kaine’s mother, had shoved their baby into his arms and told him she couldn’t
stay. He’d never seen her again. She’d been killed by the Mal shortly
after that.
    Kaisie had panicked. He hadn’t had a fucking clue what to do
with a baby. And the lucani had been in the middle of a war back then. A
secret battle against a group of eteri fanatics who called themselves
Zuhno, an old Romany word that meant pure.
    They’d made it their job to wipe out the lucani . The lucani had fought back and won. But it’d been a long battle and he’d let the den rear
his daughter more than he had. He’d felt helpless in the face of her cries and
the overwhelming responsibility of caring for a tiny baby utterly dependent on
him.
    He’d loved his daughter at first sight but at the age of
nineteen, Kaisie hadn’t known how to juggle his duties as a tracker and his
responsibility as a father.
    Luckily for him and Kaine, the lucani hadn’t let him
fail her. They’d taken care of her when he’d had to leave and they’d taught him
everything he’d needed to know to take care of her himself when he was home.
His parents had helped as much as they could but they’d been close to seventy
when Kaine had arrived. And gone by the time she was ten.
    He looked at his daughter across the aisle, still in her
wolf pelt and spread out across two seats. They’d wrapped her paw and given her
a shot for the pain from the med-kit and now she slept.
    Grace had carried his daughter out of the house with that
gash on her arm while John had kept Marrucini busy so they could all get away.
    Kaisie met John’s solemn gaze. “She’ll make it. She’s too
stubborn not to.”
    * * * * *
    Dr. Dane Dimitriou met them at the private hangar at the
airport.
    He glanced at Kaine before he said she could wait to be seen
back at the den by their resident veterinarian, Ryan Maguire.
    Kaisie watched Dane’s face tighten as he examined Grace
before he started hooking her up to tubes and packets.
    “We need to get her back to the den. I need to close that
wound. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
    Kaisie wished everyone would just stop saying that. He knew
she’d lost a lot of blood. It coated her clothes and his. And John’s.
    “Then let’s get moving.”
    Dane nodded, though his lips