Luna
I took a wrong turn at a creek in my excitement to see the triplets. Now, morning is coming, damp and chilly from the cloud cover which obscures the stars. Good thing I’ve got thick fur and sure feet, so I don’t fall into the warm swamp water.
As I run, I imagined every reunion the men and I could have when I see them again. I pictured their surprise and delight, their crushing hugs and soft kisses, their passion, and wonder. All of the images in my head are happy ones.
So why do I feel so guilty at leaving Axel?
For one, he wasn’t horrid to me-not by a long shot. Not this time. But I don’t trust him, and if I don’t trust him, how can we be together?
We can’t.
Besides, I don’t want to be his mate. I want to be with Warrick, Ethan, and Callan.
Right?
I slow my run to a loping pace. Just then, I catch the scent I caught earlier, when I was hunting with Axel. Is whoever was watching me earlier
following me now? This thought sends a ripple of fear along my spine. It was exciting when I pictured Ama watching Axel fuck me, overcome with his desire for me. Having her stalk me through the woods and catch me alone? Not so exciting.
I slink into the underbrush and listen intently with my nose tipped up to scent the air, a knot of dread and fear pulling tight in my belly. Now that I have time to really take in the scent, I’m less sure that it’s Ama. It smells like… Something familiar. Maybe it’s a male’s smell. I fought Ama once, and though I don’t remember her scent, I don’t think this was it. When I don’t hear anything, I venture back out into the clearing, intending to make haste toward the triplets’ place.
Suddenly, an enormous wolf attacks me, knocking me to the ground. I’ve never seen a wolf this big-and I’ve seen the triplets in wolf form. Axel’s words about “watch out for a lone wolf” swim through my mind as the wolf sinks its teeth into me.
I scream piteously, sure this guy will tear me to shreds. I have no chance against a wolf this big. But I have no choice but to fight, so I yelp and wriggle, finally raking my back paw down his belly, where the fur can’t protect him. He roars, and I shoot out from under him and run for my life. My mind is whited out with fear, making it impossible to take a full breath
or think of a better strategy than to flee. The swamp’s ahead, and I race for it, leaping into the water and swimming like mad.
I scramble up the bank to the other side of the water, grateful an alligator didn’t have me in his sights, since I’m bleeding bad from where the wolf bit me. Then I race for home. Out of nowhere, the lone wolf rockets from my left and attacks. His knife-like teeth catch purchase on my neck, and he shakes.
I cry out and struggle, howling like a banshee. I kick and claw, trying to break his hold on me, but he’s too damn strong. My short life flashes before me, and I know this is the end.
He continues to shred my neck, growling and tightening his jaws.
My consciousness starts to fade. I know I’m losing blood, too much to survive. I’ll be dead before I had a chance to really live, outside of the lonely swamp existence with Mama, which was really just surviving. Before I had a chance to really love, to tell the triplets I love them all, and to tell Axel… I don’t know what.
Just before my lights go out, I call silently for Warrick, Ethan, Callan, even Axel, begging for them to save me. Then I realize that’s all wrong, that I need to tell them how I feel. That they made a difference in my life. That I love the wild motorcycle men who were banished like me, and I wish my rejected mate the best in leading the Jacksonville pack.
Without telling them anything, though, I succumb to death’s cold embrace.
Warrick
I sit on the porch swing and light up the first cigarette of the day. I’m up before the light because Ethan came stumbling in drunk just before dawn, crashing around like the inconsiderate asshole he is and waking the rest of us. I’m surprised he didn’t bring home a woman, but he hasn’t done that since Luna came to stay with us.
She’s gone now, though. He could bring home a woman. I wouldn’t stop him. We need to let her go, all of us. I want my brothers to be happy, and I want Luna to be happy, and this is the best way. I haven’t told my brothers, but I know where she is. I crept through the Creebay preserve, watching for signs of her every night since the vamps took her. Surely I’d catch her scent if they let her out.
But I didn’t find her around the vampires’ lair. I found her in the woods with Axel, hunting and then fucking. At first, I wanted to rip both their throats out. But as the gut-punched sensation drained, and I saw her come hard for him before he rubbed his seed into her marks as a claiming, I realized I couldn’t intervene. She was with her mate, and he was satisfying her in every way. If she’d been a simple chosen mate before, not a True
Mate, I would have fought for her. But nothing can interfere with a True Mate bond. Obviously, even severing it couldn’t unbind their wolves from each other.
We were a bunch of fools to think we could ever be more than a temporary refuge for her battered heart.
I finish my cigarette and flick the butt into a puddle off the side of the porch. It lands with a quick sizzle. I hear something near the edge of the swamp and perk up my ears. From the sound of it, two wolves are in a fight to the death.
And even though I didn’t interfere with Luna, she’s my first thought. It’s one thing to admit she’s better off with that prick Axel. A mating bond is sacred, and I want her to be happy, even though I despise that motherfucker and don’t think for a second that he deserves her. But she seemed happy as fuck when I saw them together, and if I put my ego aside, I have to admit that the Jacksonville pack can offer her protection and safety in numbers, something me and my outlaw brethren can’t.
But if someone so much as lays a paw on her…
I shift and race toward the sound without a moment’s hesitation. As I get closer, I smell her, and my pace quickens. I tear through the underbrush to get to her.
My baby girl, Luna.