Luna
I wake to the sound of crashing that shakes the floors. I sit up, blinking in the blinding sunlight that makes my head pound. For a second, I can’t remember where I am.
Then a familiar voice booms through the house, bringing the whole overwhelming day before back to me. It must be midday judging by the position of the sun, but I feel as groggy as if I barely slept. I can’t remember ever having slept so late. I must be sick. That explains the headache and the oversleeping.
“Give me back my mate,” a familiar voice thunders from another room. “Or you’ll wish you could die, you bloodthirsty leech!”
A rush of joy floods my heart at the sound of Axel’s voice, and the brand on my arm pierces me with fiery heat. But then I remember fleeing his house, hiding from him, the pain and confusion of the mating ritual he performed.
“I’m not keeping her from you,” Evan says. “I’m merely offering her rest. She chose to come here and did so of her own volition.”
Loud footsteps tromp in my direction. The door to my room flies open, and Axel looms over me, a frightening expression of fury marring his face.
I feel instantly, incredibly safe when surrounded by his arms-and because I know I’m not, it makes that feeling terrifying, as if my free will has fled like I did last night.
“Put me down,” I cry.
“Like hell.” Keeping a fierce grip on me, Axel throws me over his shoulder and carries me out into the bright sunshine, sliding into his truck and buckling me into the other side before powering on the vehicle and speeding away down the gravel drive through the woods.
“How did you find me?” I ask, staring at him, my heart galloping in my chest.
He says nothing, but pushes his foot down, making the truck leap forward and careen along the road even faster. I’m still not used to going so fast, and it’s exhilarating but scary, too. I grip the strap he bound across my chest, trying to catch my breath over the thrill of speed and sound roaring under us like a giant swamp monster.
“Where are you taking me?” I shout over the noise of the engine. He still says nothing.
Only when he skids to a stop in front of his house and I lurch against the strap does he turn to me. I’m laughing at the sensation of flying, but it quickly dies when I see the blaze of fury in his eyes. “What did you do with the vampire?” he demands.
“What do you mean?” I ask, shrinking back against the door. “Did you let him suck your blood?”
“N-no,” I say. “I didn’t know that’s what he was. He was nice to me, that’s all.”
His eyes narrow, his nostrils flaring. “Like I was nice to you last
night?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you let him fuck you?”
“What is fuck?” I ask, unsure why he’s so angry, but knowing he’s
dangerous, like Mama always said. He’s twice my size at least, and unlike last night, when his size felt protective and powerful and right as he loomed over me on his bed, now it’s terrifying.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” he says, his voice going from hot as the summer sun to colder than seawater in winter.
“What did I do?” I say, scanning my mind for something, anything I might have done.
“You went to the vampires,” he says, his voice still cold, but sad, too, like when I had to tell Mama I didn’t get anything for dinner and we’d have to sleep hungry again. “Now, tell me what happened from the moment you met that bloodsucker to the moment you left.”
I take a breath and haltingly walk him through every moment, every word we spoke. “Then he gave me something to drink,” I finish. “I thought it was water, but he asked me questions, and then I couldn’t stay awake and I…” I realize I’m blubbering, but the intensity rolling off Axel scares me.
When I stop speaking, Axel just stares at me.
“So, you don’t even know if he drank your blood,” he says. “You were drugged. You could have said or did things you don’t even remember.”
“I didn’t!”
“You gave away our secrets to a vampire!” His words blast through me like the bite of an alligator. “Do you understand how serious this is?”
I bite my lip and shake my head.
“This is a crime that carries a sentence of death for a werewolf,” he says quietly. “Since you didn’t know better, I will ask-hell, I’ll probably have to fucking beg-the pack for clemency. They will spare your life, since you are the True Mate of their Alpha. But you will no longer be allowed to join the pack, as this is the deepest betrayal a wolf can fathom. My packmates will never allow a traitor such as you to join, and I cannot in
good conscience be your mate and put all of them in danger for my own selfish desires. I will go to our shaman and have her dissolve the bond.”
He reaches out, stroking my hair behind my ear with tenderness that somehow hurts, when combined with the crushing sadness in his eyes. I don’t know what “dissolve the bond” means any more than I know what it means to be bonded. But from the ache in his gaze, I know it can’t mean good things for me. As I slump back in the seat, I realize it can only mean one thing for my mother, too-without his protection, she’s going to die.
*
Loud footsteps sound on the steps of Axel’s home, making me jerk from my position in a huddled ball on the front-room floor. I’ve been hunched in the corner here for an hour or more, ever since Axel brought me home from the vampire’s and then went off to deal with a crisis at another pack member’s house.
A sense of elation swells in my chest, telling me he’s home. The
moon symbol throbs on my arm before he even opens the door. But a far worse brand, the accusation of betraying the wolf pack, hurts even more.
Axel enters, along with Ama and an elder as frail as leaves when they’ve lost their color and begin the process of decay in warm swamp water.
The elder moves slowly, progressing toward me with an unmistakable elegance, like a deer. A large nut-brown satchel rests on her shoulder, swinging slightly as she moves. “Get up, child,” she says in a loud, clear voice that doesn’t match her wizened features.
I rise obediently as Axel and Ama stand back, eyeing me as the elder approaches.
My limbs begin to tremble. “What are you going to do to me?”
“I’m going to separate your soul from that of your True Mate,” the shaman says, setting her bag on the table in front of Axel’s sofa.
“I hear it hurts like a bitch,” Ama says, sidling closer to Axel and giving me a smug smile.
“Silence,” Axel growls through clenched teeth. “Don’t make it worse than it is.”
Ama drops her gaze to the floor.
Axel’s hands are squeezed into fists, but his eyes are soft as he stares at me with a look that says he regrets this more than I regret going to the vampires. I don’t know why, don’t understand what exactly it means, but the sadness in his eyes tells me that he does.