Page 47 of Taken by Moonlight

Dante, the black wolf shifted back, his clothing appeared on his now humanform.

The other wolf, Guy, did the same. Dante shook his hand and then did some odd clasp of forearms. Maybe it was a shifterthing.

“Thanks for saving my ass,” Guy toldhim.

“Thank you for helping us,” Dante said. “My warriors areyours.”

“As aremine.”

Dante headed for the limo, saw me standing there. He swore and hustled me inside, then took a seat on the long row opposite me, while Gabriel sat on my right, Alex on my left. Gabriel had shifted back into human form, clad in jeans and a black T-shirt.

Guardingme.

“Peyton, you need to listen to me,” Alexchided.

“You could have had your throat torn out. Damnit, you just stood there,” Gabrielscolded.

“Where were you?” I askedGabriel.

“Checking out the alley. I had smelled more than one Brown and had to do recon to make sure Brown hadn’t brought his whole damnpack.”

He shoved a hand through his long hair. “Peyton, you have to listen to us. You could have been hurt or evenkilled.”

I stared at the floor. He wasright.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I just…froze.”

Silence hung in the air for a minute. Dante brokeit.

“Next time, do as we say and stay behind.Understand?”

Dante’s voice was low, deep and controlled. I knew how angry he was only because I’d heard him use the same tone on a fellow club patron just before he punched him in the face for pinching the butt of a startledwaitress.

Gabriel added in a gentler voice, “Peyton, we don’t want anything happening to you. Until you learn how to defend yourself against our kind, you have to learn to trust ouradvice.”

Alex tensed. “Our choices make us, Peyton, and you made a bad one. We’ll guide you into making wise ones around shifters, but you have to listen tous.”

There was much I didn’t know about shifter culture, even though I’ve worked amongst them for two years. When a shifter was in human form and as obnoxious as skinny, whining Earl Brown, they could turn into vicious killingmachines.

From this night forward, things would change. I sensed I could never return to my oldways.

Not if I wanted to keep my skinintact.

The guys beside me were quiet. Dante was on his cell, speaking in a low voice. I guessed he relayed the latest threat to the pack backhome.

Alex reached for a glass, poured a shot of whiskey and handed it to me. Usually I seldom indulge, but I tossed it back. Liquidnerves.

Nearly being torn apart by Earl Brown will do that to agirl.

Tension rippled through the car. I knew the three of them were mad at me because they worried. Theycared.

The closeness we’d shared only a few hours ago had faded, replaced with a clear hierarchy. As alpha, Dante made the rules, and Gabriel and Alex were in charge of enforcingthem.

I needed to distract myself, recover from the horrible trauma of facing a wolf that wanted to kill me. Trapped with the guys in the limo, now was a good time to find out about the inner workings of packlife.

“Guy looks like a powerful wolf. Were those alphamarkings?”

Alexnodded.