Who was the villain here? Who was the one who brought war today? I had always thought that Shane was the one who brought war to Desert Moon, to my family, to my friends, to me but… I had been wrong all along. Shane wasn’t the one who brought war.
I had been the one who brought war to Half Moon, to the only home I knew before Desert Moon. I had been the one who brought the killing and death to my family. It was my fault. As I looked around, my jaw dropped as realization set in. I did this.
I’d always blamed Shane for everything that went wrong. I blamed him for everything that had happened in the last life. Gabe’s death, and Olivia’s death, I hated him for killing Ethan. In this life, I hated him for wanting me, chasing me, I hated him for threatening my family, I blamed him for the death that was coming, that I feared. Those nightmares that plagued my sleep every night, the dreams hadn’t been trying to warn me about Shane.
They were warning me of my mistakes. They were telling me to stop repeating history, to stop doing the same thing over and over again. They were warning me that what I was doing would lead to that and here I was faced with that same outcome I had been trying to avoid. The dreams had been trying to show me that he wasn’t the villain. It was showing me myself.
I was too shocked to cry. The dreams had been showing me that I was the villain. My knees wobbled and gave out. My body dropped as I slumped to my knees. Goddess. It all made sense now. I had dedicated myself to a plan that was doomed to fail from the beginning like it always had. I was the one who did this. I was the one to blame for all of this coming to fruition.
I had been right to try and change things from happening but I didn’t connect the dots. I don’t think I ever would have been able to. I was never going to pick up on that. At least I had managed to change something. I had saved… I had saved my family. As the thought crossed my mind, my eyes locked on the top of a blonde head. I broke. My sobs were uncontrollable and my shoulders shook as I crawled on all fours towards the decapitated head.
Please.
Anything but that.
Please.
Anyone but him.
Please.
Don’t be who I think it is.
Please.
I came upon dirty blonde hair matted with dried blood. I’ve seen this scene too many times to count. Time stands still and for a moment, I focus on him. Everyone else is a blur as they run and fight around me.
My fingers tremble violently as I reach out toward the head. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I pick up the head off the ground. I swallowed as I gripped the sides and lifted it. Blood dripped and my eyes dropped to a pool of blood on the floor.
Slowly, I turned the head around until I was looking down into brown eyes. It didn’t stop the tears. If anything, I cried harder, this time I cried tears of relief. I realized the head in my hands didn’t belong to my best friend, it wasn’t Gabe. I cried tears of relief as I lowered the head until it was on the ground. I wrapped my arms around myself protectively as I cried.
I don’t know how long I sat there crying. A scream broke through my thoughts and I shook my head. I needed to get myself together. I shake my fingers and arms. I don’t have time to wallow in pity and fear. This wasn’t Gabe, he wasn’t dead. I needed to find my family and ma-my partner. Standing to my feet, I made my way over to the child who was holding onto his mother’s body as it lay sprawled on the ground. I picked him up and took him to the door of the packhouse.
“You’ll be safe here.”
I didn’t say anything else. I turned from him. He was safe now. I needed to stop this war. I needed to find him. Lifting my nose to the air, I tried and failed to smell him. I needed to find Ethan. We could stop this war together but I needed to find him. It was time to mind-link him.
Ethan.
Ethan.
Silence. There was nothing. I was still part of Desert Moon. I was still their Luna. He should answer, he should be able to hear me. Why wasn’t he answering? Maybe he could hear me but was ignoring me. I push that thought aside and I try again to reach out to him again. I scan my surroundings as I try to find him.
My gaze locks on a familiar figure. Tall, broad, muscular shoulders. He stands in the middle of the field. His face is covered in blood, his body is covered in dried and fresh blood. His piercing green eyes find me and he locks me in his gaze. I cry, tears streaming down my cheeks as a look of relief washes over his features.
He still cares. His face was still bruised but not as bad as it was last night. His eye wasn’t swollen shut anymore but there was still swelling around his eye. He looked like a god of war as he stood in the midst of a battle, the sun shined down on him as fresh bodies dropped onto the old. He stood like a stone wall but I knew he had to still be hurting from the torture he went through the night before. I’m so glad he got out. Guilt washed over me. It must have been bad if he didn’t come right upstairs for me. Was he… did his chest hurt?