Thirteenth Luna Bonus Chapter 1 – No Alpha, No Luna, Return to the Pines

**This bonus scene takes place after Grizz has gone after Lyra to rescue her from her kidnappers. Jimmy and the rest of the Riders from the Brotherhood have returned to the Pines to await Grizz’s return**

Jimmy

My kneecap fucking throbs as I pull my bike back into the Pines, moving fast down the dirt road with the rest of our bedraggled pack. I went down hard when we got hit by that surprise raid on the road, and I took the brunt of my fall right on my damned knee. Fuck, it must be swollen to the size of a pumpkin right now, and as purple as a plum—

You coward, my wolf growls, scratching at the dirt of my soul. Your Luna has been kidnapped, and your Alpha is all alone going after her, and you’re worried about your stupid knee—

I growl and shove my wolf away with a mental hand.

I know all that, and of courseI’m worried sick. I’m concentrating on my fucking knee right now because the throbbing pain is the only thing that’s keeping me from going to pieces over the fact that Lyra is gone, and Grizz is out there looking for her, and he stupidly rode off before any of us could get our bikes up and go with him.

My wolf nips me hard, urging me to ride out now, to go find them. But I shove him away again as I pull my crumpled bike to a stop before the Hot House. I hiss as I put my foot down and attempt to put some weight on it, yelping as pain shoots up my leg. God damn it, I didn’t break my kneecap, did I?

“Jim!” Ma shouts, her voice tight. I lift my head to see her storming out of the hot house, her face pale enough that her wrinkles stand out more than usual.

I swing my leg over my bike and groan, the noise quickly shifting to a gasp as my knee fails to take my weight and I stumble to the side. Ma’s firm hands are there, luckily, catching me on the ribs and helping me keep my balance as my poor bike slumps against me as well. I groan and muscle it back up, holding it steady with my grip tight around the handlebars.

“Oh, you fool, you little chit,” Ma hisses, shoving me straight again. I frown down at her, suddenly wondering if she’s alwaysbeen this small. Ma snarls at me and raises her hands, smacking me hard on the chest with both. “Tell me, right now, you silly ass! Tell me what happened!”

“Jimmy!” Ivy cries, and my head immediately snaps left. I forget all about Ma as Ives runs toward us. She’s visibly frightened, her pallor only making the lovely tattoos on her collarbones stand out—baby’s breath on one side and chamomile on the other—

God, but she’s pretty…

“Hey, hey!” Ma snaps, her hands smacking to both of my cheeks and forcing my head to turn, my eyes to fall on her again. “You can let Ivy lick your wounds all you want,” she snarls, keeping her voice low. My cheeks immediately flush. “As long as you tell me what happened to my boy—”

“Are you okay??” Ivy gasps, scuffing up dirt as she skids to a stop in front of me. “What happened??”

“We were attacked,” I sputter, trying to turn my head to her, though Ma’s grip makes it hard.

“Oh, yes, he talks when you ask,” Ma grumbles, rolling her eyes and dropping her hands to her hips.

“Lyra was taken,” I say, nodding. “Grizz went after her—”

Ivy moans, and Ma just gets paler and paler as I stumble out with the story, telling them everything I saw and everything I know.

“Thank you, James.” Ma turns sharply away from me, looking unsteady. “I’m going to go…I’ll find…I’ll find Boone. Yes. Beta!” She strides off, setting her thin shoulder back as she goes. Boone turns toward her from his spot surrounded by Riders. “What the hell went wrong??”

I stare after her. She…never calls me James.

“Jimmy,” Ivy whispers. Her hand presses to my arm, and I turn to her, still shocked. “Are you okay?”

Completely on impulse, I step forward and wrap my arms around her, gathering her against my chest.

“Oh!” Ivy goes still against me.

I duck my head, taking a long sniff of her scent. God damn it, she smells fantastic—always has. Like the pines, of course, but chamomile and violets too…

Slowly, Ivy wraps her arms around me as well, squeezing me tight. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispers. I close my eyes, my heart singing even as my soul fills with dread that certainly won’t disappear until I see my Luna and my Alpha home again, safe and sound.

“I think I fucked up my knee,” I murmur. “And my bike—”

“Oh, fuck your bike,” Ivy grumbles.

I suck in a breath, pulling away slightly, staring down at her in horror. “Ivy!”

She tilts her head up, glaring at me. “Bikes can be replaced, Jim.”

“You hold your tongue—”

She rolls her eyes, and my wolf whines, the sound turning into a garbled yelp as she pushes slightly away from me and suddenly drops to her knees before me. I freeze, my body going to granite.

Oh my—

Oh my god—

I’ve had this exact dream several times—

But what the—

“Which one?” Ivy glances from one knee to the other and reaches out, squeezing my left knee first. I gasp, starting to drag my right knee back, self-preservation the only thing making me draw away from her when she’s kneeling in front of me like that. “Is it this one?”

I’m too late. Her hands shift to my right knee, giving it an experimental squeeze, and I tilt my head back, a strangled, garbled shout of agony echoing up to the treetops, shaking the needles. Ivy gasps, yanking her hands away.

“Ivy, what the hell are you doing!?” Cleo roars, storming over to us.

I moan, falling back on my ass, my leg straight out before me, my body trembling at the shock. My bike tilts without my hand to balance it, and Ivy shrieks, leaning hard to the right to catch it, but she’s too late—

It crumples yet again to the ground, and I lean all the way back so that I lie in the dirt, covering my hands with my face, moaning with pain and dismay.

“Oh my god,” Cleo snaps, suddenly very close. Hands wrap around my wrists, pulling my hands away from my face. “Jimmy, you’re so dramatic. What hurts?”

“My bike,” I groan. She snarls at me, her fangs extending, and I groan again, closing my eyes. “And my knee!”

“Ivy, go get some scissors,” Cleo growls. “We need to cut his pants off above the knee—”

“No!” I groan, struggling to sit up again. “Not the pants—I like these pants!”

“Cleo!” Ma barks out from somewhere across the square. “Ivy! Over here, now! You’re wanted!”

Cleo scowls at me as Ivy sits straight, looking over at Ma, her lovely face worried, her red curls swinging around her face, hectic and frizzy and beautiful. I just stare at her for a long moment, unable to do anything else, until Cleo snaps her fingers in front of my face.

I jump, turning to her.

“You sit here,” she says, pointing a finger at me. “No movement until I come back, all right? No weight on your knee until I tell you it’s okay.”

“Can I lie down?” I grumble.

“Sure, puppy,” she says with a sigh, patting me on the head and using the leverage to push herself up to her feet, offering a hand to Ivy. “Do whatever you want.”

Ivy glances at me as Cleo helps her up, but I just let myself collapse onto my back as both scurry away. Worry races through my veins with every pulse of my heart.

God, fuck, what are we going to do?

“Hey, Jim.” Kenzie’s voice rings out, far too calm. Oh, god. I sigh as she comes into view above me, leaning down slightly to look into my face, a smirk on her lips. “Did something go wrong?”

I frown at her. How’d she find out so fast? “Seems like you already know.”

She crosses her arms. “Where’s Grizz?”

I narrow my eyes at her. “He went after Lyra. Obviously.”

Kenzie scowls and looks around the square before she goes down to her knees at my side. I groan and turn my head away. “Oh, come on, Jimmy,” she says, light and teasing. I feel fingers against my hair and flinch away. “I’m not so bad.”

“Stop torturing me.”

“I can torture you real nice,” she says, her voice suddenly sultry. “If you want me to.”

My eyes fly open, and I turn my head sharply, frowning at her. What the fuck? Kenzie looks suddenly coy, her hands pressed to her thighs, her back arched. My nose scrunches, and I lean away. What is happening?

“You know.” She tilts her head and purses her lips consideringly. “You could do way better than Ivy.”

My wolf snarls, his legs going rigid and his hackles raising.

Still, I play it cool, laughing softly and pushing myself up so that I’m propped on my elbows. Pack girls joke about this sort of stuff all the time, but I learned long ago to keep my true feelings locked down tight. We’re such a small community that if word gets out about who you like, everyone knows within minutes, and then there’s no living it down for years.

And considering that the girl I adore is completely indifferent to me, it’s not information I need spreading around the pack like a virus.

“Nobody’s going to take me now that my bike’s all wonky,” I say with a laugh, tilting my head toward it, hoping that humor throws a bucket of water on whatever weird vibe Kenzie is putting out right now.

She licks her lips. “Nobody cares if your bike is broken,” she murmurs, letting her eyes drift down my body. “As long as everything else works.”

I sputter, utterly shocked. “Kenzie!”

“What?” she asks, raising her eyes to mine and scrunching her nose. “You’re kind of hot, Jim. When did that happen?”

I scoff and do my best to sit up, trying to scramble to my feet. This is getting too weird. Kenzie was once engaged to my cousin, the man who basically raised me. She cannot seriously be telling me that I’m hot.

“Jim, come on,” she snaps, all her sexy tones dropping away now, her voice sharp and bossy again. I turn back to her, much preferring this. Kenzie raises her eyebrows at me. “You’re high ranking in this Pack. You should start thinking about what kind of girl you actually need at your side.”

I just stare at her.

“And if you ask me?” She raises one shoulder. “I think you should aim high. Like…really high. I mean, take today, for example. Grizz is in trouble. If he didn’t come back…”

I growl low in my chest, my brows snapping down.

“It’s just reality, Jimmy,” she says. “You’d be Alpha. And you need the right woman at your side.” She goes quiet, letting her eyes drift down over my body again. “You should think about it.”

“Fuck off, Kenzie. You’re being weird, and it isn’t funny anymore.”

Kenzie smirks and returns her gaze to mine as she pushes elegantly to her feet. “Just some friendly advice. Very friendly, if you want it to be.” She smirks at me, turning on the ball of her foot and walking over to where her father talks with Ma. She adds an extra swish to her hips, probably for mybenefit, but I turn my head away and let it fall back on the dirt.

My knee still aches. My bike is still fucked. And now everyone’s acting fucking weird…

God, but Grizz had better get back here soon with Lyra right at his side.

Because I really, really need everything to go back to normal.

Right now.

Thirteenth Luna Bonus Chapter 2 – Proposed Alliance

**This scene occurs between the events of Book 1 and Book 2 of the Witches and Wolves Series**

Riley

The coffee pot hums and hisses in the coals, the water inside just beginning to hiss and bubble. My wolf huffs in my soul, pacing back and forth in anticipation, loving that sound.

I know, I murmur, stroking a hand over his grey and black fur. We haven’t had proper caffeine intake since we left the capital. He whines and leans his head into my hand as I pet him, and I smirk, thinking he got a bit spoiled.

But we’re Rogue now, out in these Wastes where we belong. I look out over my small Pack as they begin to rise for the day, packing up their tents, stirring up the coals of campfires to warm a little breakfast. The youngest of our members—just a bunch of skinny preteens—shout and chase each other over by the edge of camp. Maybe…found a snake, or something.

I smirk, cheered by their happy shouts as I look back at my coffee pot, eager as hell for a taste. But I look up when footsteps approach, my eyes falling on one of my Gammas, Benzo, who has a bird in his hands. I sit straighter, frowning at it.

“This came,” he says, lifting the pigeon toward me as he comes to stand before my fire. “At first I thought we’d just caught a stray but…” he shrugs. “Someone’s got good pigeons. He’s addressed to us.” He tilts the bird to the side so that I can see the note attached to its foot.

I lift my chin toward it. “Let me see.”

Benzo quickly unties the note, handing it to me. I open it.

“Um…”

Annoyed at the distraction, I look up at Benzo again.

“Can I…eat it?” he asks, lifting the bird again.

My jaw drops. “No.” Benzo scowls. “Put it in a cage.”

“Do we…have a cage?”

“Or a box—whatever.” I roll my eyes at him. “It will be useful to send messages back. Do not eat it, all right? Give it seeds. Or bread, and a little water.”

Benzo sighs dramatically as he turns away and walks off. I shake my head, wondering if I made the right choice in promoting that one from Delta Rider. I mean, this whole pack is new, and I’m certainly low on Alpha experience myself. But damn.

“Eat the pigeon,” I grumble, shaking my head and returning my attention to the note in my hands. I frown deeply at it as my eyes move over the writing. I read it once, and then again.

Seriously? After months of requesting an audience, Smoke Cov makes an offer of alliance…now? Sight unseen?

What the hell is going on?

I scowl, crumpling the note in my hands and impulsively tossing it onto the fire, thinking that at least it can help boost the coffee along. The flames gobble the paper up, bright and eager, but I cast my eyes off into the distance. Again, I wish I had better ties to those who actually know what the fuck is going on in these Wastes.

Here I am with my…all right, fine, with my chicken-shit pack, quietly starving, without resources, allies, or any true knowledge of what’s going on. And no god damn way to do anything about that. Even this offer of alliance comes with promises of ties and information, if Smoke Cov is making this offer, it’s only because I can benefit them.

Which means they want numbers.

And a lot of them.

Which can only mean…

“Revenant Brotherhood,” I murmur, nodding slowly. This proposed alliance has nothing to do with me. It’s all about a move against them.

Fuck.

Things are moving in these wastes, and I have far, far too little information about where they’re headed.

The coffee whistles, and I take up the pot, pouring myself a little tin cup of the steaming brew. I sip it quietly, my eyes going hazy as I stare into the distance, trying to decide my next move. But as they always do when I’ve got too much on my mind and too little caffeine…

My thoughts turn to her. And that wonderful night, when I took her upstairs at that rickety little bar. How I’d kissed her, and everything had been right for a few hours because I’d found her again, and she was mine…

Only to wake up to a pounding headache.

And an empty bed.

Where…where the hell is she?

Did someone take her from me? Or did she run? But why would she run? We had just found each other again…

If someone did take her, god damn it, they’re going to feel my teeth in their throat.

Because I will never stop until I find my Luna again.