Moon Bound (Dreamshifters Book 2)

  Moon Bound

  Dreamshifters Booke Two

  Cameron Drake

  Kara Sevda

  Copyright © 2017 by Cameron Drake

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For my wolf

  Contents

  Moon Bound

  Prologue

  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

  Sneak peek of Dreamshifters Book Three

  Captured Dreams Excerpt

  Sneak Peek Of Vampire Princess

  Vampire Princess Excerpt

  Turn the page for an excerpt of Second Sight

  Excerpt of Second Sight

  Second Sight Excerpt

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Cameron Drake

  Also By Kara Sevda

  Moon Bound

  I’m descended from a long line of witches. The original witch, in fact. Problem is, no one gave me the witchywoo instruction manual. Oh yeah, and my boyfriend is a werewolf.

  Krista wants nothing more than to be normal. A boring, normal college freshman with a boring, normal boyfriend.

  Unfortunately, that just doesn't seem to be in the cards.

  First, there were the dreams. Then there was that night, when Dean, star quarterback, took her into the woods.

  Something has been happening to Dean lately. Something that changes him from a sweet, chivalrous young man to a ravening beast. And it seems like Krista is the only one who can help him figure out how to tame it.

  If he doesn't devour her first.

  Moon Bound is the second book in the Dreamshifters Series.

  Prologue

  The dream was a blur. A blur of wanting and needing. Of terrible change. But I felt safe, with her close.

  Even when I ran on all fours, I knew her touch. I sped through the forest, searching for her scent. Even as I tore a small animal apart with my teeth, swallowing it in two large bites, I thought of her.

  I craved her nearness.

  She was my salvation.

  Chapter 1

  Dean

  "Stay away from me."

  My eyes fluttered open. I was spread out on the cold ground. A faint light filtered through the trees above me. It was early in the morning, judging from the light. And it was freezing.

  "What the-"

  "I said stay away from me!"

  I turned my head to see Krista kneeling on the ground. She had a long pointy stick held out towards me. Right at my chest.

  A very pointy stick.

  Her big beautiful eyes were wide with fear. I could see the golden flecks in the rich, warm brown. Her shoulders were pressed up against a tree trunk. She looked like she was shivering. From the cold or fear, I wasn't sure which. I reached for her and she flinched.

  "Krista?"

  "Don't!"

  I ran my hand through my hair and brushed the leaves away. I grimaced, expecting to be stiff after sleeping on the ground all night. Instead, I felt good. Really good.

  In fact, I felt fantastic.

  "What the hell happened?"

  Krista just waved the stick, a menacing look on her adorable face. I almost laughed. She was about as threatening as a kitten. I grabbed the stick and tossed it away playfully.

  That's when I noticed her eyes were filling up with tears.

  "Hey... it's okay. It's just me, Dean."

  That didn't seem to work. Maybe she was in shock. I had to get through to her. I used a sterner tone of voice.

  "Krista! I'm not going to hurt you."

  She scrambled to the side and was on her feet in an instant. I reached out and grabbed her just as she started to run. She was so tiny, it was like taking candy from a baby.

  I held her against my chest, feeling her shivering increase. I realized that she was more than a little bit frightened of something.

  She was terrified.

  I frowned. My girl was brave. It would take something major to rattle her. I wanted to hold her and tell her not to be scared. That I would protect her.

  But I had a sinking feeling that the something she was afraid of was me.

  "Krista, what's wrong? Did something happen to you?"

  She stared up at me, the look in her beautiful, confused eyes nearly breaking my heart.

  "You tried to- and then you-"

  To hell with it.

  I squeezed her, not letting go no matter how much she wiggled. Scared or not, I needed to hold her. And she needed to be held.

  She stood stiffly, not relaxing into me like she usually did. I closed my eyes, a heavy feeling settling in my chest. This could not be happening. My sweet girl was not allowed to be afraid of me. I would never do something to scare her anyway.

  Except... I couldn't exactly remember how we'd gotten all the way out here. I looked around. We were way out in the woods, far from civilization. Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure of anything that had happened the night before... not since the end of the game.

  I shook off the thought.

  "No way. I didn't hurt you. I wouldn't."

  Her voice was muffled against my chest so I held her shoulders. She was less than an inch from me, trembling in my grip. I stared down into her heartbreakingly pretty, but frightened face.

  "What?"

  "You didn't hurt me, but..."

  "But what?"

  I stroked her soft hair back from her face tenderly. I pulled a leaf out of her tangled waves and smiled. Her huge eyes were full of unshed tears.

  "Shhhh... You can tell me. It's alright."

  Just like that, her walls were back up. She gave me a cold look and shook off my hands. I let her go, wondering what the hell was going on.

  “Dean, I just want to go home now please."

  "Krista, please tell me what happened. I can't... remember anything after the game."

  She looked at me searchingly. She wanted to believe me, I could tell. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body. I could feel her wavering between fear and compassion.

  "You really can't remember?"

  I shook my head and tried to smile reassuringly. Some of the tension went out of her shoulders.

  "Okay. I'll tell you. But not now, okay?"

  I nodded. I would give her time. On one condition.

  "Alright Krista, you win. Just one last thing..."

  I pulled her back into my arms. I saw her startled eyes register that I was about to kiss her a split second before I did. I sighed as my lips found hers.

  I kissed her gently, molding my lips to her unbelievably soft ones. After a moment she relaxed and the kiss deepened, until our tongues were swirling against each others. There was no urgency or pressure, just... us.

  It was a long time before I lifted my head again. Krista's eyes were trusting now, somehow tamed by my touch. This was the p
roof I needed.

  We were meant to be together.

  We were destined for each other.

  I took her hand, following as she walked out of the forest. We didn't speak until we were back at her dorm and I kissed her again. Then I promised I would see her soon.

  One thought echoed through my head, circling relentlessly.

  What the hell had happened last night?

  Chapter 2

  Krista

  'I'll pick you up at 8.'

  I stared at my phone. Dean had just texted me. Once again, he was telling, not asking.

  I sighed, rubbing my neck. There was no use fighting it. I was going to meet him tonight. My belly was tight with anticipation. Even after what had happened last night.

  For some crazy reason, I just couldn’t stay away.

  I had no doubt of what I had seen in the woods. It was beyond comprehension, but I knew it was real. Dean had become something else. Something not human. But every time I started to remember, my mind skittered away from the reality.

  I would go because I cared about him. But I feared him a little bit too. Of course, I did after what happened last night... I didn't really want to think about that right now.

  But I had to think about it.

  Last night was the most traumatic night of my entire life. Worse than when my mom took off. Worse than when Gran broke her hip one day when I wast there. I'd come home from school to find her crying and in pain, unable to call for help. The ambulance had felt like it took forever to arrive.

  I'd sat with Gran on the kitchen floor, holding her hand and trying to soothe her. It was awful.

  Eventually, Gran had healed. She said my touch had sped the healing process up considerably.

  But I wasn’t so sure Dean could heal from what was wrong with him. Never mind the creeps who had nearly attacked me. I wasn't so sure if I would ever get over what I'd seen last night.

  After the other terrible thing that had nearly happened.

  Everything was bouncing around in my head. I couldn’t make sense of who the good guys and bad guys were anymore. It wasn’t black and white. Maybe it never had been.

  Dean might be something terrifying underneath his skin, but he hadn’t hurt me.

  Last night, I'd been attacked by so-called 'normal' men and protected by a beast.

  He had saved me.

  After the game, after those guys tried to jump me, Dean had changed, become something different. Not his personality, though that had certainly shifted in an unpleasant way. No, he had actually changed physically.

  I was still afraid to think about it in too much detail, let alone say it out loud.

  "Monster."

  I resisted the impulse to slap my hand over my mouth. That wasn't the right word anyway. Dean hadn't turned into a monster, exactly. Not like the boogie man or a ghoul.

  He'd become something else… something halfway… caught between man and beast... First, I’d watched as his handsome face had morphed grotesquely, elongating. Growing into a muzzle. His skin had been covered with a beautiful silvery gray pelt.

  That didn’t make sense though. It couldn’t be… It was fairy tales and scary movies I was thinking of. I’d hallucinated, while Dean had some sort of attack.

  A furry one.

  I shook my head. There was a good chance it was just the moonlight playing tricks on me. But no, that didn’t make sense either. It had been very bright last night. A full moon.

  A full moon...

  Oh my God.

  The hairbrush I'd been holding slipped out of my hand to the floor as I realized what he was.

  "Hey!"

  Charise pulled her headphones off. She'd been studying across the room and the noise must have disturbed her. I bent down quickly to retrieve my brush.

  "Sorry."

  "Let me guess, Prince Charming again?"

  I nodded and smiled ruefully. Charise had that right. Dean was Prince Charming. Only my Prince Charming came with teeth.

  Big pointy teeth. And fur. And unchecked aggression.

  Something occurred to me then. Dean didn't seem to know what had happened to him. Maybe it was the first time.

  Maybe it really was a curse.

  A really, really bad one.

  I sat heavily on the bed, the hairbrush forgotten in my hands.

  I knew what Dean was. He was my friend, my companion from the dreams for so long. It was another world. Maybe even another dimension, but it was real and so was our bond. And now Dean was adamant that he wanted to be my boyfriend.

  He was my boyfriend, if I was honest with myself. We were already together. That’s what made this so messed up.

  I closed my eyes but I couldn’t block out the flashing letters in my head. The word I didn’t want to see, let alone acknowledge.

  My boyfriend was a Goddamn werewolf.

  Slowly, I got ready for my date. My date with a werewolf. I took a shower and dressed. I even applied lip gloss and a thin coat of mascara.

  An hour later, I stood in front of Charise wearing jeans and a cardigan.

  “Please tell me you are not wearing that on a date. You are just going to the library, right?”

  "So, I don’t pass muster?"

  Charise stood up, eager to play her favorite game 'let's make over my mousy roommate.' She had amazing style though, and I had long since resisted her help on date nights.

  Date night? What a joke. This was more like a maiden entering the monster’s lair. Literally.

  I felt like a human sacrifice, preparing myself to be thrown into a volcano.

  "Hmmm... jeans are good but you could use a cuter top. Hold on, I have just the thing."

  She was back in a minute with a floral cotton blouse in soft blue. Charise's closet was endless and her drawers seemed bottomless. It was practically magic. She was pretty much my own personal fairy godmother.

  I pulled off my second-hand cardigan and t-shirt. I lifted my arms and slipped into the new top, checking myself out in the mirror. It was a massive improvement.

  I felt pretty, which wasn’t usually the norm.

  "Ohhh it's so pretty. Thank you, Charise."

  "No problem. You can keep it, it doesn't fit me anymore anyway."

  "Are you sure? You're too sweet to me."

  I smiled at my tall and busty blond friend. We were both curvy girls. I was just the short one. Charise just rolled her eyes.

  "It's nothing, really. If I could switch places with you tonight, I would believe me."

  "Well, thanks anyway. I mean it."

  "Yeah, yeah."

  Charise climbed back onto her bed and slipped her headphones back on. I watched her for a minute. Charise was wrong. She wouldn't trade places with me.

  Not if she knew the truth.

  I walked over to the window and looked down. Dean was outside waiting, just like I'd known he would be. He must have just walked up. It was almost like I had my own special Dean Westen GPS.

  He was looking up at my window, almost as if he could sense me too. I could feel his impatience, see it in his stance, the way he paced back and forth in front of my dorm like a caged beast.

  The same beast that had revealed itself to me last night.

  It was time to face this. I was going to have to tell him something. Maybe even the truth about what happened last night. Hopefully, I'd be able to put it into words.

  I took a deep breath and headed outside to face my demons.

  And his.

  Chapter 3

  Dean

  The moon was bright in the sky as I walked downtown with Krista by my side.

  My feet felt like they were barely touching the ground. It was almost like walking in the dreamscape, but not quite. This time I knew it was caused by her.

  Her nearness was enough.

  I was experiencing an incredible feeling of satisfaction. Just being this close to her made my heart pound. I already knew I was falling in love with her. But now it was more.

  Something had shifted fo
r me last night. Clicked into place. I was more sure than ever that I wanted to be near her.

  I needed to be near her.

  Too bad it didn’t seem to be working both ways.

  I reached for her hand. She glanced at me, uncertainty in her eyes. She still didn't trust me, that much was obvious. She's started to tell me about what happened the night before but had trailed off. Something had scared the hell out of her.

  I had a strange certainty that the something was me.

  "Here we are."

  Krista looked up at the barbecue joint and gave me a tentative smile. I squeezed her hand and opened the door, pulling her inside.

  A waitress came and showed us to a table by the window, handing us menus and hovering. The girl was giving me overtly flirtatious glances. I ignored her.

  "Hi, I'm Liv. I'll be your server. The specials are on the board. I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order."

  "Thanks."

  I was watching Krista as she looked around the place, picking up her menu and glancing at it. She was like a little bird or some other small creature. Cautious yet wild and free.

  And so beautiful I could hardly tear my eyes off of her.

  I leaned back and watched her, giving in to my instincts. I could feel my hunting instincts rise. I felt myself wanting to protect her at the same time that I wanted to devour her.

  Figuratively speaking of course.