Page 18 of Moonlight & Mayhem

“I’ve heard stories,” she said.

“What stories?” Mayhem asked.

She looked uncomfortable. “Old ones.”

“How old?” Howler asked.

“From before the clubs started,” she began.

Mayhem’s wolf went unnaturally still. “How far before?”

Moon hesitated. “When wolves still lived under traditional packs.”

Howler folded his arms over his chest. “Keep talking.”

Moon walked toward the cabinet and pulled out an old leather-bound journal, and Mayhem frowned. “You just happen to have ancient wolf history in your clinic?”

“It belonged to my grandmother.” Something in her voice told him not to joke. Moon opened the journal. The pages were yellowed and brittle. She turned carefully through them. “My grandmother was a healer.”

“Like you,” Howler said.

Moon nodded. “And her mother before her.”

Mayhem watched her. He knew that there was more to the story. “Go on,” he said.

She found the page she wanted, and her finger traced faded handwriting. “The Hollow Pack wasn’t technically a pack.”

“How reassuring,” Mayhem muttered.

Moon ignored him. “They were wolves who believed the mate bond could be manipulated.”

Mayhem’s blood ran cold. “How?”

“They experimented,” she said.

Howler’s expression hardened. “With what?”

“Blood, silver, herbs, and even ritual magic,” Moon said. Mayhem looked at his arm and the black veins. His wolf recoiled. Moon continued. “They believed fated bonds made wolves vulnerable because mates could be used against each other.”

Mayhem glanced toward her. “Can’t argue with that.” Her eyes met his. Someone threatened Moon, and Mayhem would burn Baltimore to the ground without asking who owned the buildings.

“What did they want?” Howler asked.

“To break bonds,” she simply said. Mayhem’s jaw tightened as Moon turned another page. “Or create them.”

Silence crashed through the room. Mayhem laughed, but it had no humor in it. “You want to repeat that?”

“They believed mating could be forced through blood manipulation,” she said.

Howler swore, and Mayhem stared at Moon. “And you think that’s what they put in me?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“But you think it’s possible,” he said.

“Yes,” she whispered. His wolf growled inside his chest, and Mayhem doubled over as pain ripped through him. “Mayhem!” Moon reached him, and the second her hands touched him, his wolf calmed.

Mayhem sucked in air, and Howler stared at them, and then at the monitor. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”