ARTEMISIA
“Matthew?” Lisa asks, not believing her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
Matthew steps into the cave, looking at me with a worried expression. “Missy, are you okay?”
I nod, not convinced about it. “Just a little shaken.”
Something feels strangely off to me as I observe him come closer, holding his hand out to Lisa. “What did you do? What is the reason for all that?”
Lisa is still clasping her arm as she looks at me completely lost. “Where is Logan?”
“He killed Cayden and Fynn, but Hendrick managed to get him down. He is being brought to the pack house.” He lifts his finger towards Lisa, gulping. “Lisa, what is going on?”
She shakes her head, tears falling down her face. “What? No! He was supposed to get here. What the hell?!”
Just as she stomps her foot, tearing her attention back from him, I start shifting back from her as fast as I can and suddenly, she halts in her movements.
Her breathing gets laboured as she slowly lifts her hands, bringing them to her heart. Clenching the fabric of her top, her eyes widen, and I feel a sense of dread rising in me as I watch fear spreading on her face.
I turn my face to look at Matthew and I gasp as I see how his expression has shifted, his face now distorted by disgust. He is holding his hand up, balled into a fist as he keeps clenching it with a destructive frown.
Only now do I recognize what he is doing.
“Matthew, no! Stop it,” I scream, just as he brings her heart to explode with a small plop, making her slump to the ground.
He looks at her with a disgusted grimace before he collects himself, and scurries to me, worry now all over his face. “Missy…”
“No! Don’t touch me!” I shout, scooting away from him.
His face falls, desperation taking over as he takes a few steps more to reach me. “No, no, no, Missy! You don’t understand!”
“I don’t want to!” I scream at him, making him look at me panicky.
“I did it all for us!”
Halting in my thrashing, I get him to wrap his hands around my wrist properly. “Now, we will just have to get rid of the pups and we can start all over.”
“You are insane!” I whisper, making his smile fall lightly.
He tilts his head, blinking at me. “What?”
“You are fucking insane! Let go of me!” I roar, and his expression morphs into a rage-filled mask.
Getting into my face, he snarls, making me shut up instantly. “Fynn is dead! Stop acting up. You will just make it more painful for you, mate.”
The voice he talks with isn’t his, making me think of the worst. “What did you do? This isn’t you.”
“What did I do? WHAT DID I DO?” He lets go of my hands, pushing himself back up. “What did the Moon Goddess do to me?”
I whimper as I cower, afraid of him hitting me any minute. “I have been waiting for you! ALL. MY. LIFE. And for what? Only to be sharing you with my fucking brothers, who had nothing better to do than to belittle me all the time.”
“Oh, my Goddess. What did you do?” I ask in a whisper, making him shrug.
“As if Fynn was the only one intelligent enough to find the witch,” he says, pointing to his head repeatedly. “But I wasn’t as weak as him. I let him consume my soul and he is just about to have taken over my wolf entirely by now.”
He puffs his chest proudly as I look at him shocked. “You killed your wolf?”
“I didn’t kill him,” he chuckles, looking at me scrunching up his nose as if I didn’t get it.
And honestly, I didn’t.
“I made him stronger.”
Taking a step back, he turns Lisa onto her back, and before I can finish my scream, he has already ripped open her chest to eat her heart.
I gag, turning myself away as I don’t want to see it, but it’s too late as it has already imprinted itself into my mind.
‘We have to get out of here!’ Cassy urges, making me sob.
‘Where? We would just make him angry if we ran.’
Cassy groans, stomping her paws. ‘Then think of something!’
“Where are we going then?” I ask, gulping, making him look at me with a happy smile. “Are you really going to sell me to Rick?”
“No,” he shakes his head, straightening his spine as he whipes the blood off his lips. “It’s just something I told her to play her like a fiddle.”
Stepping back in front of me, he crouches down, cupping my chin. “I would never give my precious mate away. And as soon as Logan will be executed too, we will be free.”
“I… I don’t get it.” I say, making him sigh.
“Well,” he starts as he sits down in front of me. “I made her believe Logan wanted her as her Luna, and made Ricky believe he could have you as his mistress so that they could play each other out. She is kind of a witch… thing… something like that. And it was just easy. She was really useful.”
Clicking his tongue, he tilts his head, his eyes falling onto my belly. “The only thing that enrages me is that she wasn’t able enough to keep you poisoned as I had planned out. You were never meant to get pregnant with all that poison in you, but I guess those damn demonic genes of Fynn were just too strong. Damn, I mean, that fucking water should have made you abort instantly.”
I flinch, clenching my eyes closed as he hits the wall next to my head, snarling. “And I should have been the fucking first.”
He sighs, retreating his fist as he waits for me to look back up at him. “Well, but don’t worry. We will have that sorted out fast enough.”
Grabbing me by the arm, he pulls me to my feet, dragging me to the outside as I keep struggling against his hold. “No! Let me go!”
“All we have to do now is wait for Rick so that we can blame him for all this mess together with Logan.” He pulls me to his side, grinning as he adds. “Killing him will be easy, he is a loser.”
He straightens back up, staring into the forest as panic keeps constricting my chest.
‘You have to be strong for me now,’ Cassy says, making me cringe.
Swallowing a sob, I agree in my head, bracing for the worst. ‘Okay.’
I look up at him, thinking that she must be mourning as well, as her mate is clearly gone.
My body temperature rises slowly, and he must be feeling the sizzling on my skin as he repositions his hand, inspecting it. My pups stir, sending fire through my blood while Cassy raises a shield on my skin, making Matthew scoff.
With a painful grab, he pulls me to the side, moving to stand right before me. Before Cassy can complete her work, he grabs my face, his eyes turning completely red. He grins grotesquely as his claws sink into my skin, injecting me with something that looks like black smoke before it crystallises in my veins, disrupting the protection Cassy has built up completely.
He tsks repeatedly, scolding me like a little child while Cassy whimpers in my head. I grab his shirt helplessly as pain streams through me and I fear that whatever he injected me with will hurt my pups. “Please, don’t hurt them.”
I scream in pain as he lets his claws slide out slowly, grinning at me creepily. “This bad, huh? I wonder how bad the mark will be then…”
Blinking twice, I am just about to ask what he means, as his teeth elongate, transforming into a horrific set of sharp teeth.
“No!” I scream once again, as he holds me tight, sinking the seemingly hundreds of teeth into the crook of my neck.