His Moonsilver Mate (Abby and Kade) novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23

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1:10 pm

Chapter 23

ADLY

“There’s something we need to tell you.

The last of my good mood disappeared.

Liam pulled out a chair at the kitchen table.

This time, I sat.

Kade stayed near the counter. Neither of them looked relaxed anymore.

“What happened?”

“It’s about the rogue attacks,” Liam said.

I frowned. “What about them?”

“They’re connected,” Kade said. “Not just the ones around Moonhaven. Other packs have been hit too.”

A chill moved through me.

“How many?”

“Enough that the Alphas have been sharing information for months,” Liam said. “At first, it looked like ordinary rogue activity. Border raids. Supplies stolen. Patrols attacked.”

“But it isn’t.”

Kade pushed away from the counter.

“Some of the packs reported girls disappearing after the attacks.”

I went still.

“Girls?”

“Young she-wolves,” Liam said. “Most of them recently shifted.”

My stomach dropped.

“Tiernan captured one of the rogues during an attack on Ravenwood,” Kade continued. “They finally got him talking.”

I remembered Tiernan arriving at Moonhaven.

The closed-door meetings.

The tension between him and Kade.

1

“What did he say?”

“The rogues are organized. Someone has been gathering scattered groups under one command. Nobody knows his real identity. The packs have started calling him the Rogue King.”

The name sounded ridiculous in our kitchen..

Like something from one of the old stories Liam used to scare me with when we were kids.

Except rogues had already crossed our borders.

Warriors had already been hurt.

I had already been taken once.

“And he’s taking the girls?”

“His men are.”

“Why?”

“That’s the part we don’t know,” Liam said. “But we know what they’ve been told to look for.”

He paused.

I hated the look on his face.

“What?”

“A young wolf. White or very pale gray.”

For a second, everything around me seemed to fade.

Kade’s gaze stayed fixed on me.

“One that looks silver under moonlight.”

Diana went completely silent inside me.

I remembered the forest on my birthday.

Moonlight spilling through the trees.

Her pearl-gray coat turning brighter beneath it.

Almost metallic.

Silver.

Liam had seen it too.

1:10 pm

My mouth went dry…

“That could mean anyone.”

“It could,” Liam said carefully. “There are pale wolves in other packs.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that?”

Because I already knew.

Kade answered anyway.

“Because Diana matches the description more closely than any wolf we know.”

I looked at him.

He had seen her today.

Not beneath the moon.

But enough.

The way he had stared at her came back to me.

Her pearl-gray fur.

The silver-white sheen running through it when the light caught her.

“You think she’s the wolf they want.”

“We think there’s a real possibility.”

A real possibility.

Not a story.

Not a coincidence.

Girls were disappearing.

Diana shifted uneasily inside me.

Do you know anything about this?

A pause.

No.

That frightened me more than if she had said yes.

“What exactly did the rogue say?”

24

.

1:10 pm

Kade answered.

“That they’re looking for a young she-wolf with a pale coat. The stories say the one they want shines silver under moonlight.”

Liam added quietly, “A wolf some people call Moonsilver.”

Diana went still again.

“What does that mean?”

“We don’t know enough yet,” Kade said. “There are old stories. Most of them contradict each other.”

“What kind of stories?”

“That Moonsilver wolves are rare. Powerful. Different from ordinary wolves in ways nobody seems to agree on.”

“That’s helpful.”

“I’d rather tell you we don’t know than pretend we do.”

I rubbed my palms against my jeans.

“And the Rogue King wants one.”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“For what?”

Kade’s expression hardened.

“We don’t know.”

I looked away.

“What happens to the girls?”

Neither man answered.

That frightened me more than anything else they had said.

“Liam.”

His face tightened.

“Some never came back.”

My stomach dropped.

“And the ones who did?”

21

1:10 pm

Kade answered this time.

“They don’t remember.”

I stared at him.

“What do you mean?”

“They remember being taken. Sometimes the attack itself. Then nothing.”

His voice hardened.

“Hours. Days. Whatever happened after that is gone.”

“Gone how?”

“Drugs. Magic. Both. We don’t know,” Liam said. “The girls who were returned couldn’t tell their packs where they’d been, who held them, or what had been done to them.”

Cold spread through me.

“So they take them, do something to them, and then send some of them back?”

“Yes.”

“And the others?”

Neither of them answered.

They didn’t need to.

I looked down at my bandaged wrists.

So this wasn’t just a search.

Girls were being taken, examined for something no one understood, and either sent home with pieces of their

memories missing-

Or they never came home at all.

“How many?”

Liam gave me a number.

It wasn’t huge.

It didn’t need to be.

My stomach turned anyway.

1:10 pm

“And the man who took mc?”

“He wasn’t part of that group,” Kade said. “We’re almost certain he was hired specifically to take you.”

The cave flashed through my mind.

The rogue complaining that I was supposed to be an easy job.

The syringe.

The silver cuffs.

Someone had paid him to take me.

That was bad enough.

But it meant the people searching for Diana might not even know who I was yet.

I wasn’t sure whether that made me feel better or worse.

Kade spoke quietly.

“This is why we’re telling you now.”

I looked at him.

“We can’t treat Diana like something harmless anymore. If she is what they’re looking for, someone seeing her shift could put you in immediate danger.”

The words landed hard.

I glanced toward the windows.

The woods beyond them suddenly looked different.

“How many people have seen her?”

“Liam and me,” Kade said. “Tiernan knows the description, but he hasn’t seen Diana himself.”

“What about everyone who was there on my birthday?”

“No one saw enough to understand what they were looking at,” Liam said. “We want to keep it that way.”

I stared at him.

“What exactly are you asking me to do?”

“Don’t shift where anyone can see you,” Kade said.

My chest tightened.

1:10 pm

“I just got her.”

Liam’s expression softened.

“I know.”

“I’ve barely had a chance to be a wolf.”

“And I hate asking this of you.”

“Then don’t.”

His face changed.

Kade stepped in before he could answer.

“This isn’t permanent.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“No. But I can tell you what happens if the wrong person sees Diana and word gets out.”

His voice was lower now.

Controlled.

“They’re already taking young she-wolves based on nothing more than coat color. We cannot give them a reason to come straight to you.”

My anger faltered.

Only slightly.

“No running alone. No shifting where anyone outside the people in this room can see Diana. And Chloe and Noah can’t know yet.”

That brought the anger right back.

“They’re my best friends.”

“I know.”

“They were worried sick about me.”

Liam leaned forward.

“And if they don’t know, nobody can force the information out of them.”

I went quiet.

The thought was horrible.

1

1:10 pm

Because it made sense.

“They would never tell anyone.”

“Not willingly,” Kade said.

That was worse.

Liam stood.

“We’re not trying to take Diana away from you.”

“It feels like it.”

His voice softened.

“But I would rather have you furious with me than missing again.”

That shut me up.

For a second, I saw him in the clinic.

Exhausted.

Terrified.

Waiting for me to wake up.

I looked away.

Kade waited until I looked at him again.

“There’s one more thing.”

I almost laughed.

“Of course there is.”

“I want you and Liam to move into the packhouse.”

My head snapped up.

“No.”

“The packhouse is easier to secure.”

“I just got home.”

“I know.”

1:10 pm

“I spent days locked in a cave and then in a clinic. I am not moving somewhere so everyone can watch me.”

“No one is locking you anywhere.”

“Really? Because I’m already not supposed to shift, not supposed to tell my friends, not supposed to run alone-”

“Because there is an organized rogue network abducting girls who match Diana’s description.”

His voice sharpened.

Then he stopped himself.

When he spoke again, he was calmer.

“I’m asking you to move temporarily because the packhouse has more warriors, controlled entrances, and better protection than this house.”

“And if I say no?”

Kade looked at me for a long moment.

“Then you stay here.”

I blinked.

“And?”

“We increase patrols around the property.”

Liam glanced at him.

“You already did.”

I stared at both of them.

“There are guards outside?”

“Not right outside,” Liam said quickly.

“That is not reassuring.”

“They’re far enough out that you didn’t notice.”

“That’s worse.”

“Abby.”

I pushed back from the table.

“I just got home. I spent days with people watching me sleep, checking my pulse, asking me how I felt every twenty minutes. I finally get back here and now there are patrols around the house.”

A

1:10 pm

Neither answered.

Kade took one step toward me.

“I’m trying to make sure nobody gets near you again.”

Something about the words struck wrong.

Not because they were cruel.

Because they sounded familiar.

Protecting me.

Deciding what was best for me.

Keeping me safe whether I wanted it or not.

And then another thought came.

The clinic.

The one-sided bond.

The way Kade had stayed.

The way he had looked at Diana today.

Fascinated.

Almost awed.

My stomach dropped.

“Is that why?”

Kade frowned.

“Why what?”

“Why you changed your mind about me.”

He went still.

Liam looked between us.

“Abby-”

I ignored him.

1:10 pm

“You rejected me because I wasn’t ready to be Luna.”

Kade’s expression tightened.

“You thought I was too young. Too inexperienced.”

He didn’t deny it.

“Weak.”

A beat passed.

“And now Diana might be some rare wolf everyone is searching for.”

Kade took a step toward me.

“No.”

“You saw her today.”

“That has nothing to do with this.”

“You couldn’t stop staring at her.”

“Because she’s beautiful.”

“And special.”

His eyes hardened.

“That isn’t why I want you.”

I laughed, but there was nothing funny about it.

“You didn’t want me when I was just Abby.”

The room went silent.

Kade looked like I had hit him.

I hated that part of me was glad he understood how much it hurt.

“But now I might be important,” I continued. “Now suddenly I’m worth accepting.”

“No.”

His answer came immediately.

“That is not what happened.”

“Then what happened?”

1:10 pm

For virce, he didn’t look at Liam.

Didn’t look away.

“When you disappeared, I thought I had lost you.”

My anger faltered.

“The bond was gone,” he continued. “I couldn’t feel you. Knox couldn’t reach Diana. There was nothing pulling

me toward you except me.”

My throat tightened.

“I spent every hour you were missing wondering where you were. Whether you were hurt. Whether I would ever

see you again.”

“Kade-”

“I knew nothing about Moonsilver then.”

His voice dropped.

“I didn’t know what Diana might be.”

He took another step closer and stopped.

“I only knew you were gone.”

I swallowed.

“And that was when I understood that I loved you.”

For a second, the room disappeared.

Diana surged forward inside me.

Warmth rushed through the faint opening Kade had created in the bond.

Knox.

Joy.

Hope.

Too much.

I pushed it back.

“You love me.”

”

”

V

“Yes.”

Qiftet.

Certain.

My eyes burned.

“That’s very convenient timing.”

“I know.”

“Stop saying that.”

His face changed.

I immediately regretted snapping.

But I couldn’t stop.

“How am I supposed to know what’s real anymore?”

“I can’t prove it to you tonight.”

That made me look at him.

He continued.

“But Diana could be completely ordinary and I would still love you.”

My throat tightened.

“You rejected me when you thought I was ordinary.”

“I made a mistake.”

“A pretty big one.”

“The biggest one I’ve made.”

Silence.

“What if Diana had been brown?”

“I would still love you.”

“What if she was weak?”

“Same answer.”

“What if I never become Luna?”

1:10 pm

His expression didn’t change.

“It wouldn’t change how I feel.”

“What if I reject your bond again?”

That one hurt him.

I saw it.

But he didn’t look away.

“It would hurt. But it wouldn’t stop me loving you.”

Diana whimpered softly.

I hated how badly I wanted to believe him.

Maybe that was what frightened me most.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“No.”

I looked up.

“I expect you to decide for yourself.”

His voice stayed steady.

“And if you don’t believe me now, then I’ll give you reasons to believe me later.”

I stared at him.

“That sounds suspiciously patient.”

“I’m trying something new.”

Liam made a quiet sound that might have been a laugh.

I almost smiled.

Almost.

Then Kade said, “But none of that changes the danger.”

The weight dropped back into the room.

“The Rogue King doesn’t care whether the stories are true. If he thinks Diana might be what he’s searching for,

that’s enough.”

“So I’m supposed to hide.”

“For now.”

“And move into the packhouse

“I want you to consider it.”/

I looked at Liam.

“What do you think?”

“The packhouse is safer.”

“You didn’t even pretend to think about it.”

“I thought about it while you were unconscious.”