Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge Book 2)

My eyes sprang open to the shadows that played like ghosts in the room. Moonlight spilled in through the bank of windows on the east side of the house, the night rippling with a calm that somehow felt forged.

Disoriented, I blinked, trying to discern what had ripped me from sleep.

A cold dread slipped through my senses when I heard it again.

A low, mournful cry. The same kind of cry that used to pull me from sleep all those years ago. A devastating whimper that billowed through me like a plea.

A hook straight in my soul.

Tossing off the blanket, I slowly rose from the couch and onto my feet. My heart thundered, a battering so loud I could almost hear the reverberation of it against the walls.

Or maybe…maybe it was just her fear.

This thing that came alive in the room. A haunting that proclaimed.

Throat closing in, I edged across the floor and toward the steps that led up to my room.

Part of me shouted that I should ignore the call. Pretend I hadn’t heard. I’d learned the hard way that I shouldn’t intrude. I’d get wrapped up so fast I wouldn’t know what hit me.

But there was no chance I could disregard her pain. Especially when I heard another whimper echo through the door.

A dark energy roiled from within and bashed at the wood.

A thrashing of grief and a convulsing of horror.

Could barely swallow around the dread as I reached out a shaky hand and set it on the knob. I hesitated for a prolonged, uncertain beat, before I clicked open the door to the duskiness of my bedroom.

The huge windows on the far wall right behind the bed offered just as awesome a view as the ones in the main room, though this side overlooked the woods beyond. Moonlight fell through the panes and lit her in a milky incandescence.

That smooth, soft skin aglow where she was in the middle of my bed.

Would have stared at the vision for my whole goddamned life if it wouldn’t have been for the fact that she wasn’t shrouded in the peace I’d always prayed she’d have.

No.

She was writhing, her head thrashing from side to side as she flailed her legs, so hard that the blankets and sheets had been pushed to the floor.

Raven’s gorgeous face was pinched and twisted in distress. Like she was fighting off a demon wherever she was lost to the night.

I wanted to chalk it up to a simple nightmare.

But I couldn’t do that when I knew firsthand that Raven’s demons had been real.

When I knew the way those demons haunted her. Ones she kept hidden behind those teasing smiles and that bright, shining belief.

I crept across the floor, knowing I wasn’t anything but a demon, too.

It didn’t matter.

There wasn’t one fuckin’ thing in this world that could have kept me away from her right then.

Coming up to the side of the bed, I leaned over and murmured her name. “Raven.”

I kept it soft, praying she would be comforted by the sound. Praying it would be enough to draw her out of the dark, dark place she had gone.

Only she thrashed harder, and a long cry rolled up her throat. The sound was so fucking devastating that it nearly dropped me to my knees.

I wavered, standing there wearing only my briefs, sure that I was crossing so many lines that it was going to come back and bite me in the ass.

But the only thing that mattered right then was her.

Comforting her.

Letting her know she wasn’t alone in her suffering.

So I gave, helpless but to climb all the way onto the bed.

Carefully, I reached out and I brushed my fingertips down her cheek. “Raven, wake up, it’s me.”

“Please, no, stop,” she begged from the depths of her misery.

My spirit screamed and my pulse careened. My arms trembled like a bitch when I snaked them under her back and pulled her to my bare chest.

A flashfire ripped through my body at the contact.

“I’ve got you, Raven. I’ve got you. You’re safe. You don’t have to be afraid.” I muttered the promises to the top of her head.

“Otto.” Nails raked down my back as she clawed at me.

I wasn’t sure if she issued it within her dreams, but I let my lips drift down her head to her temple where I whispered across her soft skin, “I’m right here, Raven. I’m right here.”

I felt it the moment she came to coherency, and she gasped as she pulled back an inch. Enough that those inky eyes were blinking up at me. Saturated with surprise and uncertainty before they softened with this gutting relief that tore through me like a knife.

Moonlight danced within the endless pools, dragging me right down to their depths.

I could fucking drown in this woman. Float in who she was for eternity.

“Otto.” It was a quiet, haggard whimper.

I brushed my fingers through her hair. “I’m right here. Right here.”

A shuddering breath left her, and I could physically feel the tension drain from her as she shifted to curl herself around me.

Nearly came apart when she climbed right onto my lap.

Long, luscious legs wrapped around my waist.

Like as if on instinct, she knew that was exactly where she belonged.

I became painfully aware that my white tee she’d gone to sleep in had ridden up around her waist, and her lace-covered pussy was pressed up tight to my cock that I was trying to will into submission.

I could not fuckin’ get hard right then. Not when she needed my comfort. Not when she needed to feel safe.

Wasn’t sure that I was that strong, though, so I shifted us, unwinding her legs from my waist and lying us down so we were facing each other.

Keeping her close.

But not that fuckin’ close.

I stared at her, fingers gentling through her hair as if it could chase away her fear, soothe the sting of wherever her mind had forced her to go. Those eyes were on me.

Fierce.

Wounded.

Bright and still so fucking sad.

“It’s okay,” I muttered, trying to tamp the rage that blistered through me.

Unsure which bastard she’d been taken back to.

Wishing I’d been the one to wipe out every single one of them.

“Nightmares are still plaguing you?” I finally asked once she seemed to have caught her breath. I kept brushing my fingers through her hair. Unable to stop touching her. Hoping it would be enough to pull her all the way back to the here and now.

Would give anything to be able to end them permanently. But the only power I had left was to end the few that remained.

Her hair swished across my pillow as she gave me a slight nod. “Sometimes.”

“How often?” I pressed. Couldn’t stomach the idea of her waking up like this.

Alone.

Guilt tugged at my conscience at the thought that I’d abandoned her when she’d needed me most. But I’d had to put an end to it. Draw a line when my loyalties had become blurred.

Raven warred, teeth clamping down on her red bottom lip like she wasn’t sure she wanted to admit it. “Maybe once a week.”

My chest squeezed in a fist. “Fuck, Raven.”

“It’s not that bad,” she whispered.

My thumb brushed the apple of her cheek. “It sounded pretty bad to me.”

Her gaze drifted away before she blinked back my direction. “You were the only one who could ever keep them away.”

It sounded of a confession.

My guts turned over in a tidal wave of protectiveness.

Taken back to that time.

When I’d hear her crying in the night and go to her.

A wraith climbing into her bed at night.

Somehow, I’d managed not to fully push through the boundaries I’d set, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t wanted to.

Didn’t mean that I hadn’t wanted to wrap her whole and keep her.

But I’d known I’d only hurt her in the end. Burn a thousand bridges that would ruin us all.

Still, I was murmuring, “I hate that I haven’t been there for you.”

She was about twenty when we’d moved here to Moonlit Ridge. It’d been the year before that when things had gotten skewed between us.

My loyalties.

My devotions.

The way I looked at her.

That was all right before every good thing in my life had been ripped out from under me. When I’d failed my sister.

Once we’d come here, the crew had all split up and no longer lived together.

That separation had been for the best. Putting up physical walls and miles between me and Raven. It wasn’t like we hadn’t remained close, but it was easier to ignore the wicked thoughts that invaded when I wasn’t sleeping under the same roof as her night after night.

But that also meant I couldn’t hear her when she needed me.

“Does River know?” I asked.

I hated that I thought I saw a glimpse of shame play through her features when she shook her head. “No.”

Goddamn it.

She had been alone, and my own shame gripped me by the throat. I pulled her a little closer and whispered against her forehead, “So fuckin’ sorry, Raven. Can’t stand it if you felt abandoned.”

She peeled herself back enough to look at my face, her voice wishing for a lightness neither of us could seem to find. “You couldn’t drive all the way across town and climb in through my window every time I had a nightmare, Otto.”

My thumb stroked along her jaw. “Maybe I should have.”

A thousand emotions arced in a wave through her gorgeous features.

Sorrow.

Belief.

Loss.

Love.

Did my best to tuck back what all of them really meant as she snuggled closer to me. “I want to be brave, Otto, but sometimes I think…”

She trailed off, going silent, her breaths long and choppy in the quiet night that billowed around us.

My arms curled tighter around her to bring her flush.

Heat flamed at the connection, but I ignored it, focused on what was important and not the distorted need I didn’t think I’d ever get free of.

“You are brave. So goddamn brave. Look at you, the way you smile and shine all your beauty into this world. Spreading joy like it’s gushing out of you. It’s a better fuckin’ place because of you, Raven Tayte.”

I could feel her long blink, the girl pressed so tight into me her lashes brushed my chest. “Sometimes I wonder if it will ever go away. The pain. If I’ll ever truly heal.”

I exhaled a weighty breath. “No, Raven, I doubt the things we go through ever fully go away. They scar us and mark us forever. It’s how we handle those scars that define us.”

Mine had festered under the callused surface. Fermented until the best parts of me had become spoiled.

But not Raven.

“And you, Moonflower, through all the horrible shit you’ve had to endure. Through the abuse. Through living on the streets. Through…” I croaked off the last. I was unable to give it voice—that moment that had crushed us both. Still, I managed, “In the darkest night, you bloomed.”

I could feel her sinking into me.

Giving me her trust.

Except I knew that I’d always had it.

Knew she’d always thought of me as her safe place.

I’d made an oath to myself that’s what I’d always be. I’d always be there for her. Her support. A promise that I’d never fucking hurt her, and I’d crush anyone who did.

Which meant I damned sure shouldn’t be allowing myself to get this close, but I found I couldn’t tear myself away.

Not when I could feel that she needed me to hold her up right then.

Not because she was weak.

But because we all needed someone sometimes. Needed the support and the belief.

Raven edged back enough so that she could peek up at me, so goddamn pretty she ripped the breath straight out of my lungs. “You’ve lost so much, too, Otto, and look at you.”

She saw the exterior, though. The parts that remained unscathed. My loyalty for this family. My devotion. The way I joked and teased and didn’t hide the fact that I was all about the pleasure.

But that was surface. What I let everyone see.

It was all the vile bits that I kept hidden. But I had a hunch she wasn’t ignorant of those ugly pieces inside me.

“You want to tell me about that dream?” I asked, diverting the subject back to her where it belonged, though I was unsure if I could handle knowing what monsters followed her into the night. If I was responsible for them. If she saw the same damned thing I did whenever I closed my eyes.

She chewed at her bottom lip, and her gaze darkened as she was taken back to that place. The words were carved in harrowing secrets. “It’s always the same, and I’m always right back in that room where my father terrorized me. Just a little girl who had no strength. No voice.”

A skitter of rage ripped through my being. I wondered if she could feel it. The pulse of it where our flesh was pressed together.

It was the same dream she’d been having all that time.

Since she was little.

“What I wouldn’t give to be able to go back and rewrite that history for you. Give you a different start. A better start. The one you should have had all along,” I told her.

End that fucker before he’d ever had the chance.

River had taken care of that problem years ago. Put the fucker six feet under because fiends like him didn’t deserve the oxygen they were stealing.

Made sure the deviant never had the chance again.

She blinked, dark eyes glinting beneath the moonlight. “None of us have that power, and I hate that my brother carries the guilt that he couldn’t stop it. He was a child, too.”

He was older than her by seven years, though, so I understood how he’d taken on that burden.

“I hate that all these years later he still carries it. Hate that he still worries about me so much,” she admitted.

Knew firsthand that he did. And I understood both sides—his innate need to protect her and Raven’s need to find herself outside the gilded cage all of us had taken a part in keeping her in.

“That why you’re afraid of telling him you’re moving out?” I asked.

She wavered before she said, “I just don’t want to cause him more worry than he already has. Don’t want to put more of a burden on him. Don’t want to upset him.”

“He’s gonna get that you need this, Raven. He’s going to put your needs in front of his. It’s what people who care most about each other do. They take care of each other. Support their goals and dreams. And it might take him a minute to wrap his hard head around it, but I know he always has your best interests at heart.”

My insides shriveled at the thought of her out on her own. But there was no question that she needed it. Deserved it. Last thing she needed was all of us trying to stifle her spirit.

“And here I’d thought you were going to take River’s side and try to convince me to stay with him?” It was almost a tease from those seductive lips.

“The only thing I want is for you to be happy, Raven.”

Safe and fuckin’ happy.

Glowing all her light.

“I feel happy…right now,” she whispered.

“After that dream?” Didn’t seem possible.

“With you…right here. I missed this.”

Something pulsed through her distinct features, her face flushed with things she should never feel. Things neither of us should contemplate. Which was why I should haul myself out of this bed and plant my ass back on the couch.

Only she nestled herself closer. I could tell she didn’t have on a bra as she pressed those tits against my chest, only the fabric of my tee separating us. Her heat all around. This need saturating the air in some kind of greed that made me lightheaded.

Stupid and reckless.

Because I curled her closer, too, and tucked her head under my chin. “It’s where I want to be, Raven. Right here with you whenever you need me.”

“Then stay. You make it better, Otto.”

I swallowed down the lust that bolted through me, my voice haggard when I muttered, “Sleep.”

Because there was no chance in hell I was going anywhere.