Death of the Moon, page 1
Death of the Moon
Secrets of the Moon
Book 1
S.A. Pavlik
Copyright © 2022 S.A. Pavlik
All rights reserved.
Edited by Lisa Lakeland
Cover art by Cate Ashwood Designs
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No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without prior written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Paperback: ISBN 979-8-9857876-1-0
Ebook: ISBN 979-8-9857876-0-3
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First paperback edition April 2022.
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CONTENT ADVISORY: MC with PTSD, past torture implied through flashbacks, dealing with grief
A werewolf with secrets.
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Alec Channing has lived a long life, and he’s just going through the motions, lost in his troubled past, until fellow werewolves and shifters start dying around him. An increase in werewolf attacks only adds to Alec’s problems. As his past closes in, his only hope lies in one man—an unaware human whose vanilla and spice scent and easygoing attitude draw Alec in. However, Alec can’t help but worry about what will happen when that man uncovers the truth about Alec’s preternatural world.
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A homicide detective who is out of his depth.
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Detective Damien O’Connor joined the Columbus Police Department to bring closure to victims and their families—closure that he never got for himself. But when none of the evidence adds up for what should be a routine death investigation, he’s floundering. As the bodies continue to pile up, the sweet man who has caught Damien’s eye is at the center of the storm. When closely guarded secrets start to emerge, can Damien reconcile himself to an entirely new reality—and solve the case that might also save the man he’s come to care for?
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Death of the Moon is Book One of the Secrets of the Moon trilogy, an 84k-word M/M, paranormal crime/mystery romance, with an HFN ending. While there is a complete story arc in this book, there are plot threads that will carry on throughout the trilogy. There is language and explicit intimate scenes not suitable for readers under the age of 18. Warnings: MC with PTSD, past torture implied through flashbacks, dealing with grief.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
The Story Continues …
Afterword
About the Author
Also by S.A. Pavlik
Sneak Preview
Acknowledgments
First I have to thank my husband. Without his support, this book never would have gone from the early stages of free writing to 84k words. Thank you for being my alpha reader.
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Thank you to Kaje Harper, my sprint partner, for encouraging a newbie author. Your consistent cheerleading kept me coming back to my chair day after day.
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To the team that came together to make this happen, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to thank my crit reader, Eden Winters, and my beta reader, Megan Dischinger of LesCourt Author Services/Blue Beta Reading, for your invaluable feedback. Cate Ashwood, you blew me away with your cover design. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined my world come to life like this. You outdid yourself on this one. Lisa Lakeland, thank you for fitting me into your schedule and your hard work. I owe you that chocolate.
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Finally, to my friends and family, thank you for encouraging me and supporting me throughout this adventure. I love you all.
1
Another werewolf attack.
This marked the fifth in as many months. Alec sat back and rubbed away the tension in his neck. A few Irish Gaelic curses slipped out under his breath as stress thickened his all-but-forgotten Irish accent. “She didn’t make it?”
The Alpha of the Redwood Pack sighed. The grim resignation in his voice carried over the phone. “I’m afraid not. I understand that only your Oliver has survived the change out of the attacks so far this year.”
Alec bristled. Oliver was not his.
Not pack, though the young wolf certainly wanted to be. Alec didn’t belong in any pack, and he preferred it that way. No wolf would accept him if they knew his secrets, and a pack of wolves wouldn’t take long to sniff them out. Not that Oliver had noticed anything yet, but he was still too young as a werewolf and not used to his heightened senses.
“We appreciate the update, Alpha. I will pass the information along to Ari as soon as I am able.” Alec set his cell phone on his desk after ending the call. With any luck, the leaders within the preternatural community would track down the wolf or wolves responsible for the attacks across the country and put a stop to them before they drew too much attention.
Of any kind.
Alec’s phone rang again. Oliver. He briefly considered not answering. They needed to make plans for their run on June fifth, but Alec had been hoping that he or Ari would’ve found someone else to take Oliver under their wing by now, or that Oliver would feel comfortable going alone. There was a pack in Cincinnati, but Oliver had established his life here in Columbus and didn’t want to leave.
Alec tugged self-consciously at the fingerless leather gloves he was wearing. He didn’t mind running with others, exactly, but keeping his guard up all the time was exhausting. Forcefully pushing down his instinct to check the scarf tucked around his throat, he swiped his phone off the desk instead. Avoiding the call was useless. “Hi, Oliver.”
“Hey, Alec. So I was thinking we could go for a drive this month. Full moon’s on a Friday night, and I don’t work that weekend. How about you show me the national park you’re always on about? The new temp worker at the storage facility keeps talking about it too.”
“It’s a national forest, not a park.”
“Tomato, tomahto. How about it? We could camp. It’ll be fun. You’re too young to be cooped up in that apartment all the time.”
Always so eager and upbeat. Just the thought of spending three hours in the car with the man was exhausting. And while Oliver thought Alec was young, he was a bit older than the thirty-one years he appeared to be. “I’m not so sure—”
“Hey, there’s another call coming in. I think it’s work. I gotta take this. Think about it. We can talk more tomorrow? I’ll come by after lunch.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Alec leaned forward and cupped his face in his hands after the call cut out. Why couldn’t they run somewhere nearby? Wayne National Forest was Alec’s sanctuary. A private place where he went to be alone, far away from the noise of the city. Something about the forest called to him, with a sense of rightness he felt in few other places.
Though he hadn’t been there in some time.
The sweet scent of caramel announced a visitor at the door to his Vine Street apartment. Alec frowned, hackles rising, as he followed the scent out of his office and into his kitchen, picking up the subtle aroma of autumn leaves under the caramel as he got closer. Startled, he stopped short. “Ari? I wasn’t expecting you today. Is that a … doughnut?”
Ari so rarely indulged in sweets that for a moment, Alec had thought someone else had bypassed his security.
“Hello, Alec.” Sliding onto a stool at the kitchen counter, Ari hummed her approval around a mouthful of doughnut. “They were giving out samples at North Market today. It doesn’t hurt to try new things now and then, does it?”
“And you didn’t bring one for me?”
“Why would I do that?”
That was more like Ari. Her kitsune nature rarely allowed her to share her meal. Why do that when she could eat everything herself?
But that didn’t stop Alec from trying.
Leaning against the counter, Alec waited until she had finished her snack. “So what brings you by tonight? I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow.”
“I was in the area and thought I would drop by. Is that so unusual?”
She had a point there. Typically, Ari would call ahead to give him a little notice, but as Alec rarely had much of a social life, dropping in unexpectedly wasn’t an issue. Besides, she probably knew he would have news for her tonight. Might as well open with that. “There was another wolf attack. In Oregon this time.”
Ari stilled. “Did they survive?”
“No.” Alec’s heart broke for every person who lost their lives to senseless violence. In today’s preternatural community, there was no need to force the chang
Every member of the community had one survival goal: keep the humans unaware. Attacking humans senselessly did not align with that goal.
Ari cursed softly under her breath. “Did the Alpha who called have any idea who is doing this?”
Alec shook his head. The attacks were too random and spread too far apart to believe they came from any one person. However, the fact that many of the local Alphas had reached out to Alec or Ari about the matter suggested that they all suspected an Independent. After all, the rogue couldn’t be one of their own.
He and Ari had become advocates of a sort for the Independents over the years. Word had quickly spread about the work they did here in Ohio. They’d done similar work back east, but Columbus housed the largest Independent preternatural community in the United States.
“Hmm. Well, there’s not much we can do about it right now. Perhaps I should stop and see Oliver to ensure he’s safe.”
Alec tilted his head. “You think he might still be a target?”
“It’s a possibility.”
Until now, they’d had no reason to believe Oliver wouldn’t be safe on his own. Had Ari seen or heard something that gave her an impression otherwise? If so, she clearly wasn’t in the mood to share.
But she rarely was.
It was a burden she often bore alone out of necessity.
“Do you want me to come with you? Protect you from the hellhound next door?” Alec was only half teasing. Although the Pomeranian that belonged to Oliver’s neighbor usually turned into a hyperactive, vicious ball of terror around Ari, it didn’t take much for Alec to get the beast to roll over and show its belly.
“Hellhound?”
Alec laughed at Ari’s bewildered tone and held the door open for her. Surely this wasn’t the first time he’d used that moniker. Oliver loved it. “Oh, come on, you know who I mean.”
“Right, of course. You’re sweet to offer, Alec, but no. That isn’t necessary tonight.” Hesitantly, Ari patted Alec’s arm in farewell before stepping into the hallway.
Something about her seemed off tonight, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Perhaps she had seen something after all.
And it had shaken her.
2
Fresh roasted coffee in hand, Damien stood in line to grab a hot-from-the-fryer doughnut from his favorite shop in North Market before heading into the office. They even had his favorite flavor today. Damien’s mouth watered in anticipation of gooey caramel and spiced apples.
When his phone rang with the tone reserved for work, Damien sighed and stared longingly at his doughnut. Someone out there was laughing their ass off at him, taking great pleasure in dangling his one guilty pleasure in front of him before yanking it away.
Damien turned toward the nearest door and pressed the phone to his ear as he headed back outside. “O’Connor.”
The cool voice of Captain Katarina Saunders of the Columbus Police Department skipped right past a greeting and straight to the point. “I need you to head out to Mount Vernon. The victim is a John Doe, discovered by the neighbor’s dog. Officer Jones will fill you in when you arrive.”
A quick glance at Damien’s phone confirmed that Kat had hung up on him without waiting for a reply. Hell would freeze over the day she finally did wait. Shaking his head, Damien climbed in behind the wheel of his SUV and took a sip of coffee while waiting for the ping to come in with the location.
At least he had coffee.
It took ten minutes on I-670 to arrive in Mount Vernon and another ten minutes to find somewhere to park. Damien ended up a few blocks away, having to walk back. Most of the houses on Graham Street were carriage lane style, with an alley between the homes and rear entry garages. CPD’s crime scene unit and medical examiner vans had already claimed the precious few parking spaces near the front of the house where the victim had been found. Granted, CSU had more to lug around than Damien did.
Officer Andrew Jones stood off to the side, interviewing the neighbor as Damien passed him on the way in. Andy had his hands full with the woman, who couldn’t seem to keep hold of the chirping little ball of fluff she called a dog as it fought to get back into the house with or without her.
Damien flashed his badge at the gatekeeper—some rookie he didn’t recognize—and stepped inside. A CSU tech pointed up the stairs, where Franklin County Medical Examiner Emily Whitehall had already started her examination of the body. He took in the seventy to eighty-year-old man lying in the bed. The victim almost appeared to be sleeping if Damien ignored the pallor of his skin. “What, they’re calling homicide for old men dying in bed now, Em?”
“Good morning, Detective. I am doing well. Thank you for asking.” Emily glanced up as he approached, ignoring Damien’s question with a sparkle in her bright blue eyes. She nodded toward the bedside table, pulling off one of her gloves to tuck a stray auburn curl behind her ear. “The neighbor didn’t recognize our John Doe, and so far, no one has seen the homeowner. We found his wallet on the nightstand, though. You should take a look.”
Damien raised an eyebrow and pulled a pair of gloves out of his pocket before he picked up the wallet. The driver’s license tucked into the clear outside pocket belonged to Oliver Stone, age thirty-seven and a resident of the house. Aside from a few credit cards, the wallet contained assorted dollar bills with odd folds in them and a dried leaf stuck to a crumpled note with what looked like PIN numbers scribbled across the page. “What am I looking for here?”
“Take a look at the license photo again. Notice anything?”
An attractive young man? “Aside from the fact that Oliver is pretty damn cute?”
Emily stared at him, unamused. “Nice. Damien, you need to get out more.”
“I get out plenty.” Damien shrugged and returned his attention to the license. Oliver was Damien’s height at six feet, with blue and green streaks highlighting his dirty blond hair and making his dark blue eyes pop. Only a year younger than Damien, Oliver possessed the type of facial structure Damien usually found appealing, but what drew the eye was a thin scar bisecting his left eyebrow.
After Emily stepped back, Damien inspected the John Doe more closely. The similarities to the photograph floored him, right down to that same little scar. “Christ, if this guy wasn’t clearly an old man, I’d say our John Doe was Stone.”
“If you look closely, he even has the same blue and green highlights, though they’re faded now. That license was issued in December, according to the dates. When I get him on my table, we’ll take some fingerprints and see if we can figure out who this guy is.”
“So maybe a stalker situation? John Doe fixates on Oliver and mirrors his appearance. Goes as far as replicating the scar on his face. Dementia maybe?”
“You know I can’t—”
A cacophony outside drew their attention. Damien glanced out the window to see what was happening as the spitfire of a Pomeranian made a beeline for the front door. The owner shouted uselessly as she ran after it, and Andy chased after them both. A crime scene tech tried to grab the slippery devil dog but missed by a mile.
Within moments, the dog launched itself into the bedroom, growling and barking at the John Doe on the bed. Fur flew everywhere. The frenzy had happened so fast that the dog managed two or three laps around the room, knocking things over and causing an overall disaster, before Damien could do anything but stare at it in disbelief.
