Chasing a Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Four by Krystal Shannan, Camryn Rhys Page A

snarled, sucking in a deep breath. “So she wasn’t taken? You lied.” Her voice rose and she screamed. “You abandoned her to be caught by a monster.”
    “Lani,” Tomás spoke gently, reaching for her.
    Citlani shook and moaned. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she tried to sort through everything. Her mother had run? Had left her? Told Zolin to hide her from what…who?

    T omás focused all his calm on his mate. He could feel her resisting him, but he didn’t have time to give her all his attention. The broody warrior was padding from foot to foot in front of him, watching Lani like he intended to grab her and run.
    “Why in the hell did you lie to her?” Tomás growled at him.
    “This is not your concern.” Zolin’s shoulders dropped and his chest puffed out. “I was given an order by the chief’s wife. My only choice was to follow it.”
    “Wait.” Tomás’ mind spun. Thirty years . Zolin had said Citlani’s mother came thirty years ago. Pregnant by a monster .
    That meant she wasn’t the chief’s real daughter?
    But…no.
    He took his mate by the shoulders and focused on her face. Molten eyes. Sharp, angular features. How could he have missed this? She looked just like them. Marco DiSanti. Elise Blanchard.
    “Your father,” he whispered. “Is the chief your father?”
    Lani swiped at her wet cheeks, her anger abating slightly. “Not by birth. But he claimed me as his own.”
    “We do not speak of it. She has been made one of us. Children of the volcano.” Zolin made the volcano god sign again and swiped his face to one side.
    Tomás dropped his hands and turned on the camp. He darted to his pack and dug for his phone. The battery was running low, and there was no service. Zolin had warned him, there would be no amenities once they left Choaca.
    But he needed to talk to Maggie. Immediately.
    “What are you doing?” Lani’s voice seemed to have picked up a touch of his calm, but he’d lost his.
    He stuffed the blanket into his pack, grabbed his water bottle, shoved his phone in the front pocket of the satchel, and took Lani by the hand.
    “We’re going to Choaca. Come with us, or don’t. But she’s my mate now and I say, we’re leaving.” Tomás ignored Zolin’s roar and ran down the mountain.
    At first, Lani’s emotions were swirling and unfocused, but the farther they ran, the more driven she was.
    She dropped his hand and ran in front of him. “This way.” She pointed off to their right. Soon, they’d left the denser forest and were on something of a worn path.
    They ran for what felt like forever, but the trail just continued to wind its way down the mountain. Tomás’ lungs burned and his feet hurt, but he felt clear-headed for the first time in more than a day.
    He had to get to a place with cell service, and then he needed to call Maggie and get the whole team to Choaca. Fast.
    The man who had impregnated Marco’s mother and Elise’s mother had also fathered Lani. The monster Zolin spoke of was the same man who had run a brothel of kidnapped werewolves. Were the men of this little Huichol village the same men from the mountains who had promised to bring down vengeance?
    He and Alex and some of the others had been visiting villages in the mountains for weeks, looking for a place where there werewolves. But there were more wolves in the mountains of Jalisco than they’d all expected, and it hadn’t been easy to find wolves who knew anything about a statue and a book in Guadalajara—which was more than 100 miles away.
    Tomás smacked his forehead and stopped his progress. How could he have been so stupid?
    He rested his hands on his knees and bent over, panting. His father would’ve seen the resemblance right away.
    “What is wrong?” Lani’s breath came quickly, too. “We are still hours from Choaca.”
    “I need a minute.” He shook his head.
    “Why?” Her features were so open, so innocent. There were things about her he already found endearing, but this was