Gray Moon Rising: Seasons of the Moon by S M Reine Page A

I’ll come up with a story and slip away when they’re watching you, so they know you didn’t set me free. And I know Levi will come for me. He won’t let them hurt me.”
    He patted her hand. “Yeah, I’m sure he’s not far away.”
    Seth wasn’t sure if that was a comforting thought or not. Bekah’s weak smile seemed to indicate agreement.
    “You’d better tie me back up,” she said, and she lay down.
    He knotted the ropes around her wrists and ankles the way they had been before. “We passed a car on the way here. You should tell them that’s how you got to the forest. Okay?” She nodded. Seth climbed out of the SUV again. “Try to get some sleep.”
    She rested her head on her arms. “Thanks. And Seth?” He paused halfway out the door. “Rylie’s going to be fine. I’m sure of it.”
    His stomach knotted just thinking about it.
    “Yeah,” he said with more confidence than he felt. “Me too.”
    He silently slid the door of the SUV closed.
    When he turned around, Eleanor was watching him.
    Her sleeping bag was open and unzipped, and he had been too busy with Bekah to notice that she had gotten up. Eleanor probably hadn’t gone to sleep in the first place. There was no way she could have heard their conversation through the SUV’s door. They had been whispering, and she didn’t have a werewolf’s hearing. But she looked suspicious.
    He immediately felt guilty. Her glare had a way of making him feel like that. “Mom,” he said, just to break the silence of the night.
    She sat on the hood of the opposite SUV, running a sharpening stone along the business end of her silver-tipped knife. “How’s the girl doing?”
    “She’s awake. I heard her moving around and wanted to see what she could tell me.”
    “And?”
    “And she was driving through and got in a wreck. That was her car.” He wondered if his mother could hear his pulse racing. It took all of his control to keep his voice totally calm. “She’s not a werewolf. I helped bandage her up myself.”
    “Hmm,” Eleanor said. She held up the blade and tilted it to catch the starlight. She spit on it, rubbed it on her jeans, and looked again.
    “What are you doing awake?”
    “I’m looking out for werewolves… and werewolf sympathizers.”
    Even in the darkness, her black eyes were sharp.
    “I’m going to sleep, Mom,” he said, even though he could imagine all too clearly that blade plunging into his sleeping bag to bury into his back.
    “You look scared,” Eleanor said.
    “I’m tired.”
    She waved the knife in the air. “Don’t worry. This isn’t for you, boy. This is for the wolves.” She jabbed the blade at the other SUV. “Tell me, Seth. Haven’t I been a good mother?”
    “Are you looking for an honest answer? Or are you just feeling pensive tonight?”
    “Tell me the truth,” she said. “I kept a roof over your head. I kept you fed and dressed. I trained you to fight and survive in a hard world that wants you dead. I gave you boys everything I had of myself—my life, my body, my soul—and for what? An ungrateful punk who would rather drive cross-country with a stranger in his car instead of his mother.”
    “You tied me up and threw me under our mobile home,” Seth said dully.
    “I protected you.”
    “You dragged my girlfriend behind a motorcycle.”
    That got a reaction. She dropped to her feet and advanced on Seth. “She’s a monster,” Eleanor hissed.
    He glanced over at the sleeping bags. Nobody stirred, but he was pretty sure they had an audience. There was no way anyone could sleep through that. Seth lowered his tone. “Rylie’s not the one who dropped poisoned meat in a school.”
    “All for your protection.” She bit out the last word.
    “Did you ever think I didn’t want to be protected?” He gathered all his resolve and stood toe-to-toe with Eleanor. “No. That’s the answer to your question. You haven’t been a good mother. You’ve been mean. You’ve been a bully. You might have