by Jess Bryant
“We’re going in before the full moon rises.” He spoke up as he looked around the room, “She gave us a meeting spot and you can bet she’ll be there before the moon is high waiting on Darius to show. We need to get there first and scout the area. If she wants to meet there, the place she’s keeping Luna has to be close.”
Rafe frowned, “She said if she scented any other wolves, she’d kill Luna.”
“That’s why we’re not going in as wolves.” He met his brother’s gaze. “We’re going in human form. All but Darius. That way his scent will overpower ours and hopefully keep us blanketed until we can find Luna and get her out of there.”
“That sounds really dangerous.” Maya was frowning now too.
“It is. But it’s our only chance to get Luna and put this crazed wolf down once and for all.” Michael tilted his chin up, “It’s also why you’re not going.”
Maya’s eyes flashed gold, “Excuse me?”
“You’re not going. Neither is Nova. I can’t be worried about keeping you two safe and finding my mate at the same time.”
“I can take care of myself.” Maya hissed.
Leo stepped in quickly, “You’ll stay behind and take care of Nova. If anything happens to Luna or to me, you’re next in line for Crescent Alpha and you’ll have to protect her. Understand?”
Maya opened her mouth like she was going to argue again but she shut it with a harrumph and crossed her arms over her chest. Michael gave Leo a nod of appreciation for backing him up. Neither of them would want to explain to Luna what had happened to her sisters if something went wrong in getting her back.
In all honesty, he didn’t want Leo going either but he knew that wasn’t up for debate. Darius was going out in those woods. There wasn’t a chance in hell Leo was letting him go alone.
Rafe cleared his throat, “Speaking of running packs, maybe you should stay behind as well Michael. We can’t have the Moirae Pack Alpha in any unnecessary danger.”
Michael glared at his brother even though he understood what he was saying. Rafe didn’t feel like he was in any position to lead even if his wolf was finally recovering from the trauma of seeing his twin and parents murdered. If something happened to Michael, their pack, their father’s pack, would be the one in turmoil. But Rafe couldn’t honestly expect him to sit on the sidelines while he sent the rest of his family and his friends, his best Enforcers, out there on what could very well be a suicide mission.
“If it was Zoey out there in the woods, scared and hurt, being kept hostage by a psychotic wolf on a full moon, would you stay behind?” He raised a knowing eyebrow at his brother.
Rafe dropped his head and sighed, “I’d have already gone off solo to search that bitch down and tear her limb from limb but I’m practically feral and you’ve always been the smart one.”
“We’ll play it smart. We won’t take any unnecessary risks. But I’m not coming home without Luna. She’s my heart and my soul not just my mate. I love her and I won’t live without her.”
Rafe frowned but eventually nodded his understanding.
“Okay then, let’s gear up and get going. It’s not long until sundown.”
Chapter 23
Luna had felt the full moon coming on all day. She’d experienced this kind of torture before. Only last month, Maddox had left her locked in that basement, chained with silver and unable to shift. Her wolf had clawed at her, wanting out, wanting to shift and run as was her right by nature on the full moon, but the silver had kept her at bay and kept her weak. Whether Sasha wasn’t as smart as Maddox or whether her own pain, grief and anger had gotten in the way, she’d made a mistake in tying Luna up and leaving her that way all day.
She’d used zip ties. Hard, impractical and plastic they cut into her wrists and were a pain in the ass, making her arms sore where her shoulders were twisted up behind her. But they weren’t silver and they hadn’t weakened her or her wolf.
That had been Sasha’s first mistake but it hadn’t been her last.
After the phone call with Michael, Luna had been irate. She’d screamed and yelled. She’d tried to half shift and cut the ties on her wrist. All she’d succeeded in doing was getting knocked in the head again so hard that she lost consciousness.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she came to this time but she’d known the sun was setting and the moon was rising. She’d also known that she was alone in the cabin. She could hear Sasha just outside the door pacing and muttering to herself again but from the other sounds it was clear she was doing more than just that. She was also cleaning the crossbow she’d stolen from the Crescent pack armory, preparing to kill Darius if they sent him out like she’d asked and then, no doubt, everyone else that Luna loved.
She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t. She was done being a victim. She was no longer the princess of the Crescent pack, a DeLuca in name only, meant to be protected as though she were made of porcelain. She was the motherfucking Queen of the Moirae pack. She was the fated mate of Michael Hudson, Pack Alpha. She was strong and fierce and nobody was going to fuck with her family anymore. Not so long as she had blood running through her heart that loved all of them so much.
Luna took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm her wolf who was chomping at the bit to get out and rip apart the female that dared try to keep her from her mate. It was a new feeling and one she didn’t fully understand. In the past, whenever she’d face confrontation her wolf had cowered and hidden due to her submissiveness.
Not now.
Maybe it was simply the trust she’d put into Michael. Maybe it was the faith that he had helped her to cultivate in herself and in her wolf over the past few weeks. Whatever it was, being with him, being mated to him, it made her stronger.
She could feel the power pulsing in her veins. She’d gotten hits of it over the past few weeks but she’d assumed it was some sort of side effect of the bond. She’d thought that she was somehow syphoning from Michael’s great well of Pack Alpha power. That had been known to happen when the bond between two mates was so strong it was like a living electrical line between them. But in all of her history lessons and research, Luna had only heard of syphoning happening once the mates had been together for years.
Four weeks seemed like a bit of a stretch.
More than that though she should only be able to syphon from Michael if he was in her vicinity. She would have needed to feel him, feel his power, in order to pull it out of him and into herself through the bond. Plus, he would have had to knowingly allow it to happen. None of that was possible considering she hadn’t seen her mate in over twenty-four hours now.
Still, her wolf didn’t back down. She was snarling and hissing to be let free. She wanted a shot at taking down the female that had hurt them, the same female that had injured them before and watched as her parents were murdered. The female that would continue Maddox’s reign of terror by wiping out her entire family if Luna didn’t stop her.
Finally it seemed her wolf was as fed up as she was and ready to do something to not only save herself but the people she loved.
Luna had kept her wolf from breaking free all day. She’d told her wolf to wait. She wanted to be sure that when she did launch her offensive that she had a shot in hell of actually winning. Sasha was a born Alpha wolf. She was weak because she was injured. She was hurting because her mate had died. But she was still an Alpha and Luna still wasn’t. One mistake, one misstep and all the training in the world wouldn’t be able to keep her from succumbing to an order if Sasha issued it in the right voice.
She needed to be sure that when she broke free her first move was to silence the other female. That was her best hope. Her only hope because hand to hand she knew she could take her but if Sasha tried to use her Alpha powers against Luna, she would be screwed.
The door slammed and Luna jerked her head around to watch Sasha stomp back into the cabin. The female didn’t even look at her. She was that certain that Luna wasn’t a threat. She would h
ave taken offense in any other situation but right now, she was thankful Sasha was underestimating her. It was her advantage.
“Shouldn’t we be heading to the river?” She asked when it became clear Sasha was patching the bandages on her side that had bled through again.
The female curled her lip, “Mad was always so sure you were too stupid to realize his ultimate plan. Me? I worried you’d figure it out but turns out, he was right. You’re an idiot too dumb to realize what’s actually happening.”
Luna frowned and rethought through everything she knew. Sasha was injured. They were in a cabin in the woods not on Moirae land or on Crescent land from what her wolf could tell. They were near the river but not on it and despite the fact Sasha had demanded Darius meet her there, they weren’t trekking through the forest for her to deliver the ultimate punishment.
Why?
Sasha snorted, “That’s it, think hard pretty, pretty princess. I’m sure it’ll come to you.”
Luna’s wolf growled but her head hurt so bad it was hard to think at all. That was what ultimately triggered her realization. Sasha had knocked her unconscious again. She’d been unconscious all afternoon. She had no idea what Sasha had been up to while she’d been lying on the floor in total darkness, unaware of her surroundings let alone the other female’s comings and goings. Luna swallowed hard as her heart sped up and anxiety made her wolf bristle.
“We’re not going to meet Darius.”
“Congratulations, Captain Obvious.” Sasha rolled her eyes.
“What did you do?” She hissed, “What did you do while I was unconscious? Where did you go? What are you waiting on?”
“So, many, questions. If I tell you the answers, it won’t change anything. They’re all still going to die.”
A knot formed in her throat and Luna felt her hands shake, was thankful they were behind her as she forced her voice to remain steady, “You set traps. Not just for Darius. You knew they wouldn’t send him alone. You plan to take them all out and what… make me watch as you kill my family?”
Sasha winced a little as she applied pressure to the new bandage and then stood up again, “Something like that.”
“It won’t work.” She raised her chin when Sasha glared at her, “It won’t. They’re too smart to come after me as one group. They’ll split up.”
“Which is why I set more than one trap.”
“They’re smarter than you. There are more of them. And they have something greater than hate driving them. They love me. I have so many people that love me. How many people do you have? Even your mate chose me over you. I have a true mate who is a true Alpha. I have family and friends and they’re going to come for me.”
Despite the fact she could see the anger and hatred overtaking Sasha’s once beautiful features, Luna kept talking. She wanted her mad. She wanted her so angry that she stopped thinking. Anger wasn’t a good weapon. It blocked reason and logic. She wanted Sasha so angry that she made another mistake and then, then she was going to make her move.
“They’ll get past your traps and they’ll track you back here. Even if you covered your tracks, you’re bleeding all over the place. They can probably scent it from a mile away, if not more. They’re going to find us and then they’re going to kill you.”
Sasha’s claws and teeth had elongated as she growled, “I’m dying anyway you little bitch but I intend to take you and as many of those people you say love you with me as possible when I…”
A loud boom tore through the forest, cutting Sasha off and making Luna jerk her head around. A cloud of smoke rose from the treeline in the distance and her heart dropped into her stomach. An explosion, it had been an explosion, which meant someone had tripped one of Sasha’s traps.
Luna spun back to the woman who had a self-satisfied smile on her face and whatever calm she’d managed to keep, abandoned her. This person had helped Maddox to slaughter her parents. She’d trapped and tortured Luna’s sisters. She wanted to kill everyone that Luna loved and that explosion had been the beginning of her war on them, one that Luna had to end before anyone else got hurt.
With a growl she forced a half shift and used her claws to finish cutting the zip ties she’d been slicing at all day apart. As soon as they broke, she shoved forward. She lunged at Sasha who was still staring out the window with that eerily happy look on her face. The woman hadn’t been expecting her to attack and let out a squeak of surprise as Luna tackled her, taking her to the ground and punching her in the throat, knocking the air out of her and making her choke. She didn’t stop there. She couldn’t. She knew if she gave her a chance to get up, to get the upper hand, that Sasha would kill her.
Luna reared back, prepared to slash the other woman’s throat, but Sasha bucked, narrowly escaping her claws and then rolled them. Luna hissed and brought her arms up defensively, guarding her face as Sasha screamed obscenities at her, called her names and generally tried to beat the hell out of her. But she didn’t use her claws, didn’t try to kill her, and that was her mistake because Luna realized she wanted to punish her more than she wanted to murder her, which gave her a fighting chance.
She took a swipe to her cheek, causing her to see stars, but she recovered quickly as Sasha attempted to sit on top of her. Blood. It was everywhere. Her mind was slow to process through the realization that it wasn’t hers but as soon as she did she went for the weakness in her opponent.
Luna dropped one of her arms, taking another blow to the face, but before Sasha could deliver another, she jammed her hand upwards and sank her claws into the other woman’s side. Sasha screamed. Luna twisted, digging her claws deeper into the open wound and winced as blood began to drip down her arm. Sasha was screaming and jerking, pain twisting her features into something unrecognizable but Luna didn’t stop. Not until she could push Sasha off of her and roll so she was on top, the one in a position of power.
Blood dripped from Sasha’s lip and her teeth were red when she looked up at Luna, giving an eerie smile, “You’re too late. It doesn’t matter. Murder me the same way your mate murdered mine. He’s going to die anyway.”
Luna pulled her arm back, prepared to deliver a strike to Sasha’s jugular and end this once and for all but those words pulled her up short and she listened. She really listened and her heart stopped dead in her chest. There was someone in the woods, coming towards the cabin, and everything inside of her told her that it was Michael.
He was here. He’d come for her, just like Sasha had known he would. But she’d set traps, so many traps…
“No!” She screamed as she scrambled off the ground, “No, no, no!”
Luna burst through the front door of the cabin waving her arms madly and screaming for Michael to stop moving. He was there, right at the edge of the clearing and his eyes grew wide and panicked when he caught sight of her. She knew she must be a sight, covered in Sasha’s blood as she was. Her face bruised from the punches she’d taken. But when he started towards her at a run she screamed again.
“No! Stop! Stop!” She shrieked and the absolute terror in her voice must have gotten through to Michael because he pulled up short and stared at her across the distance. “She has traps set everywhere. I don’t… I don’t know where they are. Don’t come closer. Please, don’t…”
“Luna look out!” Michael yelled, cutting her off and taking another step forward despite her warning.
At the same time, she felt the hand tangle in her hair and pull so hard her head was wrenched back. She gave a wince of pain as Sasha pulled her off her feet and ordered her to her knees. Tears welled in her eyes as Luna was jerked down to kneel, her hair ripped from her head by the angry bitch that she’d hesitated to kill only moments before.
She’d been more worried about saving Michael. She hadn’t thought of herself. She’d thought Sasha was injured badly enough she wouldn’t be able to come after her but she’d been wrong. She’d been the one to make the mistake this time and now, now she had to correct it before this psychotic wolf forced
her to watch as she killed her mate.
Chapter 24
Luna stared at her mate who looked absolutely devastated to see her on her knees. Everything inside of her yearned to go to him but Sasha held her in place at her feet. Michael had stopped walking as well. He stood motionless, his hands in the air as if in surrender, and she could only hope that it was a move meant to placate Sasha. She glanced up and saw that the psycho had the crossbow propped up with her other arm and was pointing it directly at Michael’s heart.
She growled but Sasha gripped her hair tighter, pulling in warning, “Shut up.”
“Hey, ” Michael’s voice was soft and calm, “focus on me. I’m the one you want right?”
“Are you the one that killed my mate?” Sasha narrowed her eyes and Michael frowned in response.
“No.” There was an unspoken comment that said he wished it had been him but he didn’t dare voice the feeling, no doubt for fear of what Sasha would do to Luna if he did.
“Your friend that tripped my wired explosive? Was he the one that murdered Mad?”
Michael’s eyes drifted down the treeline, following the river to the spot that still billowed smoke. He dropped his eyes and Luna’s stomach clenched. She could feel his worry through their bond, worry and something else, something he was trying not to let show. She couldn’t place it though, couldn’t sift through all of his other emotions, the worry and the anger and the fear for her safety, to figure out what it was.
He cleared his throat, “Yes.”
Luna bit her lip when it began to tremble. Darius. Oh God, Sasha had been right. They’d sent Darius to the spot to meet her. He’d triggered her trap. That explosion had been huge. There was no way he could have survived that, was there? Which meant that the man she had a feeling was meant to spend his life with her brother was dead. Darius was dead at the hands of this psycho just like so many others but Luna wasn’t going to let her add to that total.
