A Werewolf's Moon (The Council) by J.C. Isabella Page A

when I sat next to him, I di dn’t want any space between us.
    It was hard though. I wasn’t in love with him. I was in like. Knowing that he was my mate scared me. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Maybe acceptance would come with time, or maybe I would feel like this always. I was just going to have to take it day by day. At least I knew I could trust Quinn, and right now that was enough, I think.
    We materialized in the middle of a living room.
    “ This is my apartment.” He said.
    With polished concrete floors and exposed ductwork, it was very industrial. I ran my hand along the back of a black leather couch. I’d never been in anything like it. I dropped Quinn’s hand to have a better look around. The kitchen, which opened to the living room, was equipped with monster stainless steel size appliances. The walls were covered in green glass tile.
    I loved it, but it didn’t fe el homey, or lived in and used.
    The couch was new, the stained cement floor so shiny it glared.
    “What do you think?” he sat on the couch, setting the pizza box on the coffee table, still doing his p redators watch as I explored.
    “It’s beautiful.” I went to the far side of the room and grabbed one of the heavy green drapes, pulling it aside to look out at New York City. We were at least thirty stories up. Below I could see the cars zipping around in a blur of colorful lights. It wasn’t bright enough outside for me to see as clearly as I wanted. Still, it took my breath away.
    “Do you spend a lot of time here?” I got the feeling he didn’t.
    He shrugged, fishing the takeout silverware and plates from a paper bag that came complementary with our pizza. “Council members travel a lot.”
    I smiled. “That means no.”
    “Yeah, basically. Mostly I phase back to clean up and sleep. I got it six months ago, so who knows, maybe I’ll spend more time here in the future.”
    We ate sitting next to each other on the couch, just chatting. He hadn’t gotten around to finding a dining room table yet. Aside from all that, it was comfortable, like we’d done it a million times before .
    “So, explain your rules about phasing to me. You can’t appear at the airport or Georgia, but you can in the back alley in New York?”
    “Can’t phase somewhere I’ve never been. That’s just the way it is. I can think of Tokyo all I want, but I’ll never get there.” He grabbed a couple cokes from the fridge. “But, the rules about where we can phase are for safety.”
    “What are they?”
    “No phasing if you don’t know what you’ll be going into. I know that alley is empty and someone seeing us was slim. No phasing if you risk a human seeing you. And we are not, under any circumstances, to phase into a fight.” He frowned. “You appear in a situation, not knowing who or what is around you. It’s dangerous.”
    “Why didn’t you phase us out of the mill?” Henry had gotten Venna out in a blink.
    “We’re not supposed to phase humans. Would there have been a chance of you getting killed, I’d have phased.”
    I smiled. “You are one tricky guy to figure out. Tellin g me you’re a werewolf, and then not using your powers as a building collapsed around us?”
    “ Yeah, not my best call. Sorry.”
    “Forget it.” I nudged my shoulder against his arm, really liking how easy it was to be with him.
    So maybe the wolf was right.
    Maybe I was his mate.

 
    Chapter 12
    Quinn
     
    After we’d finished off half the pizza, I decided to change our tickets. We could fly out of JFK tomorrow morning. There wasn’t a reason for us to phase back to Virginia. By the time I hung up with the witch who handled travel for the Council, Pepper was out cold. She’d curled up in the far corner of the couch looking like an oriental angel. I flipped the TV on and caught up on the news, nothing exciting, and stayed tuned for the seven day forecast. I liked knowing the long term weather reports since I could only sense the imminent storms.
    My