Faded Moons

“Know this, Xavier King, and heed the words that I am about to bestow upon you.” The young enchantress snarled, her voice cold and calculating, hinting at her anger towards the alpha who kneeled crying at her feet. Perhaps, she should take pity on the poor mutt who had just lost his mate, his Luna, and his child’s mother, but that Luna had been her sister. That Luna had been the only family the young enchantress had and now she was dead. It was all that bastard alphas fault. He had promised to protect her. He had failed.

“please,” he begged. For her mercy, for his mate, the enchantress did not know and quite frankly she didn’t care for his pathetic begging.

“I curse your bloodline.” She sneered down at the scarred alpha. “I curse your bloodline for the rest of its pathetic eternity. Whoever in your line the curse comes to affect will not be able to shift, but their wolf will still exist, dormant in their bodies but unable to connect fully with them. But I will grant one reprieve. They will know their wolf exists, once they are of age to shift, one eye shall turn the gold of their wolf and remain that way for the rest of their life’s. They will find mates, raise young and age as a werewolf does, just without the freedom that shifting allows your kind. But my reprieve comes at a cost. Every full moon, the effected wolf will wither in agonizing pain for the first four hours of the full moon as a way of remembrance for the four agonizing hours she spent trying to escape those rogues and burn with a scarlet fever for the remainder of the night. No amount of medicine will cure it, no mate bond can heal it, and no one can stop it from coming. This is my curse of you and your filthy blood. This is your blood curse, Xavier King.”

The enchantress turned to retreat to her home with a heavy heart to mourn for her sister. The wind whipped her long blonde hair around her face and her eyes stung with unshed tears. She wouldn’t break in front of that disgusting filth. She hadn’t gotten far when his voice called out to her over the roaring winds. “Emmerence, please,” his voice cracked.

The women, Emmerence, turned back to the mutt who still kneeled on the ground. His face and clothes caked in mud and blood as his tears made clean paths down his scarred cheeks. “at least grant my family a way to break this blood curse. Would your sister want you cursing the entirety of the bloodline, for it is her bloodline now too, Emmerence.”

She regarded the broken alpha for a few moments with emotionless silver eyes, locking everything she was feeling away behind their grey depths. He would not get to see her break, but she knew he was right. It was her sister’s bloodline she was cursing. Somewhere in the dark pack house behind them a baby began to wail, and she watched the alpha stiffen at the cries of his daughter. She was surprised they could hear them over the sound of the wind. “Fine.” She snarled. “if the stars ever aligned a female of your bloodline to be mated to an alpha as cruel and cold to others as you are. If she makes him love her in a way you never loved my sister and changes his ways as an alpha like my sister tried, the curse will be broken. Had she been successful maybe those rogues would not have killed her. You started this war with your cruel ways and look at what it cost you, cost me, cost her,” she raised one pale hand to motion through the pouring rain at the large house behind him. The young enchantress knew her next words would haunt her in her solitude, but all magic came at a price. “but for this ability to end this curse, there will also be a cost.”

“what cost?”

“your daughter will be the first.”

~

“Emmerence Bell, if you do not get up right this second and get ready for your shift at the diner, I am going to come in there and drag you out of bed.” My grandmothers voice carried through the thick wood of my bedroom door and into the peaceful quiet of my morning slumber.

“alright Grammie,” I called back. My voice husky and heavy with sleep. I threw off my mounds of covers and swung my feet over onto the cold stained wood of my bedroom floor. Upon hearing my feet hit the floor, my grandmother huffed on the other side of the door before I listened to her own footsteps carry her down the hall and down the stairs to the kitchen, muttering under her breath about her irresponsible grandkids. That’s what I loved the most about being a werewolf, the advanced senses. It gave so many advantages among humans even though I was never much for going out into the human world. I preferred the uncharted wooded land of Montana, even if so many packs existed close around here.

My family belonged to the King pack. In fact, the Alpha, Derek Westland, was my uncle on my mother’s side. The last name King had been lost centuries ago when my ancestor, the first alpha of the King Pack, Xavier King’s daughter married. She had been his only child and there was no record of his ever having a mate. My father, Andrew Bell, was the Gamma and becoming Gamma was how he learned my mother was his mate. While my father spent his days training the packs warriors, my mother spent her days at the diner my family owned. My great-grandfather had given it to his mate, my great-grandmother as a wedding gift because she was so passionate about feeding others. It was in uncharted territory between our pack and our neighboring ally, the Black pack. All wolfs, even non-dangerous rogues, were welcomed in the diner. It was neutral territory and responsible for countless mates in separate packs finding each other. Something my mother was so fondly proud of because Lydia Bell had always been a hopeless romantic. I blamed the novels she would read in the late hours of the evening curled on the couch with my father as he sorted through his daily paperwork.

I stretched, earning a few inhuman cracks from my stiff body as I met my own gaze in the mirror and signed. One bright green eye and one shimmering gold eye stared back at me from across the room as my natural curly red hair framed my face in a frizzy mess. The blood curse. I remember the first time I ever tried to shift and failed, my sixteenth birthday. My family was concerned that I had been taken by the blood curse and when I woke up the next morning with one eye gold, my mother had wept in my father’s arms for hours. There were no written documents in our family history or anywhere in the pack ancient documents on the blood curse bestowed on our family during Xavier’s time or what enchantress even bestowed it. The only thing we knew of the curse was from the senile old women who lived at the edge of the village, and all she could tell us was that it had been several generations of our bloodline since the last blood cursed. And that family member had been a female as well. The blood curse was toll sum on the full moon when its painful effects took place. It would take me days to recover from it.

I broke my gaze away from my haunting reflection and opened my door before padding across the hall to the bathroom for a long hot shower. Twenty minutes later, I was running extremely late as I bounded down the stairs in my black jeans, white tennis shoes and pink blouse, my waitress outfit. “tell your mom I said hi” I heard my grammie shout from the kitchen as I swung open the front door and stepped out into the foggy morning air without calling back to answer her. Something she would probably scold me about later. I took my time walking through the pack village toward where I knew my cousin would be waiting for me in his truck. Nothing seemed off in the village, but a shiver still snaked it’s way up my spine as if there was. That was when I noticed it. A lingering foreign smell floated in the village air. It smelled of power but also a woodsy natural musk that tugged at that dormant part of my brain. I stopped in my tracks and closed my eyes as I inhaled a deep breath through my nose relishing in that lingering scent not caring if it was a rogue. Though the scent seemed more powerful, like a beta of another pack, or god forbid an alpha.

I shivered again before shaking off the sudden feeling of longing for whoever the scent belonged to and continued towards the edge of the village. I smiled when the ever familiar old rusty red two-door ford came into view, idling on the gravel road at the edge of the village next to the small grass lot where all the pack parked their cars. I wretched open the old rusty door and climbed into the passenger seat. The truck was old and ancient, but my cousin had bought it with his own money and fixed it up. He was so awfully proud of the piece of junk.

“Running a little behind schedule today, aren’t we?” Darren Westland, our future alpha, flashed me his signature panty-dropping smile as I buckled the old seat-belt and he shifted the ford into gear. The truck had been a manual when he bought it, but after a lot of money and a lot of work, his father had it shifted to an automatic. I believed it was less about the reliability of a manual transmission as he had claimed and more about the fact he just didn’t want to teach his son how to drive a stick shift. Teaching Darren to drive a manual car had been stressful enough on my Uncle, but I believed it was because he drove just like his father, too fast.

“I overslept,” I mumbled as he offered me a blueberry muffin. I quickly bit into the sugary goodness as I thought of how uncharacteristic this was for Darren on a Monday morning. How uncharacteristically nice my Grammie was this morning. Usually if I overslept she would come into my room and dump a cup of freezing water over my head.

“there’s a full moon tonight, Emmie” and that was why. They all felt so sorry for what I had to go through during the full moon but none of them could ever really understand how truly painful the blood curse was and not just on the full moon. They knew their wolf side and they could shift and run free and do all manners of things. It was torture knowing that your wolf was there but not being able to connect with it. It was agonizing.

“there was a strange scent in the village this morning.” I said. Anything to change the subject as we turned onto the small paved road that ran through the uncharted territory.

“what? like a rogue?” Darren said, anger lacing his voice. He was due to become alpha in less than three months, on his 21st birthday so I wasn’t surprised for his misplaced concern at what I said. He was learning how to lead and defend the entire pack. We were all cutting him a little slack. Most rogues meant no harm and only wanted to find a pack to belong but there was always the few who had been rogue so long, they had turned feral.

“no. It smelled of power, like it belonged to someone high ranked but not from our pack.” I didn’t mention how it tugged at that dormant part of me. I was afraid of what that could entail.

“oh.” Realization suddenly dawned on my cousin’s handsome face as he lifted one huge hand off the steering wheel to run through his reddish-brown locks. “Alpha Black is visiting, he arrived last night and is due to leave sometime tonight. He wanted to meet me before I become alpha, you know, cause the treaty and all.”

Alpha Sebastian Black was as cruel as they came. If he caught wind of any pack trying to attack him, he attacked them first. He’d kill all the males and leave the women and children as rogues to fend for themselves. He signed the treaty to become our ally only because he knew he was no match for the oldest pack around. We were stronger and smarter with more warriors. My pack had been around so long, we knew the land so well it gave us an unmatched advantage over everyone. My uncle only proposed the treaty because of threats he was receive from other packs as well. Though he never went to the extremes that Alpha Black did to cement our safety. Being allies with Alpha Black’s pack was one of the easier choices my Uncle had because both packs profited from it, whether Uncle Derek liked it or not. Alpha Black was one of the last full blooded Lycan wolfs left in the werewolf world. Though Xavier King had been a Lycan, we were only considered as descended from Lycan blood because his daughter had not been full blooded Lycan. In fact, his daughter, whose name I’d never been told, wasn’t even full-blooded werewolf. It brought into question who Xavier had mated with to create her once again when my family had dug into our blood linage to try to learn more about my curse.

A large finger poked me in the cheek. “why so deep in thought there Emmie.” Darren asked. I finally noticed that we had arrived at the dinner and he had even had time to park and kill the engine before pulling me from my trance. I looked at all the heads in the building through the window and signed. The Howling Moon was already busy, and it wasn’t even noon. I was in for a long day and a long night.

“it was nothing, Darren. I’ll see you later.” I quickly unbuckled my seat-belt and pushed open the door. I gave Darren a quick kiss on the cheek before climbing out of the rust bucket and heading into the diner. As I pushed open the door, I was hit with the smell of blueberry’s, pancakes, freshly brewed coffee and that scent. It was stronger here in the diner then it had been in the village and it seemed so out of place but so strong.

“Emmerence” I heard a familiar voice call to me from the left and I turned to offer my Uncle a kind smile before I made my way over to the booth him, Beta Remington, and two other powerful men sat at eating my mom’s famous blueberry waffles. He stared down at me with warm familiar brown eyes as he stood to pull me in for a hug, my face pressed just under his collarbone. You could chalk it up to him being an alpha and needing the enormous size, but I was so small even for a female wolf. I stood at just about five feet whereas most female wolfs towered at least five feet five. My uncle, cousin and even my own father stood at just over six feet. He smelled of his usual Armani cologne and I found comfort in the smell.

Uncle Derek let go of me and stepped back to place his hands on his hip. “you’re a little late.”

“Grammie let me oversleep” I smiled sadly at the sudden sympathy in his eyes. I hated the pity sometimes. It was my curse to bear not theirs. I wished they would all stop worrying so much about me.

“Emmie I would like you to meet Alpha Black and his Beta John.” He said motioning to the two men in the booth. My uncle set back down to finish his still warm waffle as I shook the hand of the man on the inside of the booth, who I assumed was Beta John. He was okay looking with rounded features and dirty blonde hair. His blue eyes shimmered with kindness. I turned to the larger of the two men sitting on that side of the booth and held out my hand. I gasped as he grasped it in his larger one and I glanced up to meet his deep rich chestnut eyes. That dormant part of my mind tingled again as sharp shocks of electricity shot up my arm. His hands were rough, calloused, and marked with thin white scars. I dropped my hand from his and hide both of my tiny hands behind my back. Out of habit, I slipped my fingers into the back pockets to rest against my amble behind. Id long been admired for having ample curves and meat on my bones whereas most female wolfs were tall slender and graceful with what my mother called wide, birthing hips for pup rearing. Most female wolfs started out like me, but once they shifted for the first time, they would fill out, becoming more lean and fit. I had never shifted so I stayed small and curvy. That woodsy musk smell encased me as I held the Alpha’s gaze and power seemed to just pour from every pore of his mahogany skin.

I had always pictured Alpha Black to be a gross man with greasy hair, dark, lifeless eyes, and too many muscles but here before me sat a Greek god of a man with just the right amount of muscles for his huge body, beautiful, deep rich colored eyes, and sharp facial features. Despite living deep in the Montana landscape, his skin was a rich surfers gold. His rich black hair was cut like a warrior wolfs, shaved on the side and slightly longer on the top/ small locks gently brushed the top of his forehead. A small ribbon pink scar marred what was a beautiful eyebrow. He was huge. Even seated in the booth, he was nearly twice the size of my uncle, my beta, and his beta. It must be the Lycan blood. “why are your eyes like that?” Alpha Black asked. His voice a deep and rich husky sound that sent shivers racing down my spine. I suddenly found that I was incapable of words.

“it’s a blood curse” my uncle answered. I looked at him and Beta Remington as they both stared at us in disbelief. “her wolf is dormant but still there. That’s why one eye is golden. Perhaps her father and I can explain it more back in my office. He’ll need to know. Emmie scurry along and find your mother. I’m sure she’s worried as to why your late.”

I nodded at my uncle before giving him a tiny kiss on the cheek and turning toward the door to the kitchen. I ignored the tiny growl that erupted from the powerful alpha who set across from him and I made my way into the hot kitchen.

“Emmerence where have you been?” my mother scolded as I pulled my apron off the wall and tied it around my waist. Lydia Bell stood by the stoves flipping pancakes and bacon while my father’s sister put on a fresh pot of coffee. Her greying hair was tied back in a bun and stuffed in a hairnet. A black apron coated in flour was tied around her neck and waist covering her curves. My mother was still lean as fit like most female wolfs, but she had the curves every she-wolf seemed to develop once they’d birthed a pup. She narrowed her bright green eyes as me as my aunt Macy took over flipping the pancakes. “Macy has been having to wait the tables and cook.”

“Sorry mom. Grammie let me oversleep.” I said

“probably due to the fact the full moon is tonight.” My mom signed. One of the many reasons I loved my mother, she never beat around the bush. “oh well, it hasn’t been too busy today. Booth fives waffles are almost ready and booth three is probably ready to order.

“hey mom” I said as I picked up my order book, “why did you name me Emmerence?” I didn’t know where the sudden curiosity at my names origins had come from.

“It was just a name passed down through the family, baby.” She replied as she put the finished waffles for booth five on a plate and then a serving platter. “I think it was Xavier’s time, but I can’t be too sure. Your uncle suggested it and I thought it was beautiful.”

“hmm. I was just wondering.” I said as I picked up the plate of waffles and headed back out the kitchen door.

“Booth three, Emmie.” My mom shouted as the door swung closed and I giggled. The booth my uncle and Alpha Black sat at was empty and their plates and glasses in a neat little pile for me to collect. I signed as I caught a whiff of that woodsy musk lightly lingering in the diner. It was going to be a really, long day.

By the time nine had rolled around and then nine thirty as we let a few stragglers finish eating, and it was finally time to close the diner for the night, my feet were aching, and my thighs were cramping. I could already feel the fatigue in my muscles at the thought of what was to come. It wouldn’t start till the moon was halfway in the sky and I had till at least 10:45 before they would put me in my special room in the pack house, so I could be kept under close watch. I was busy wiping my first table when my mom came bustling out of the kitchen with her own rag and a slightly depressed look of her face. “Darren’s waiting outside for you Emmie. Me and Macy will finish up.” She said as she took over whipping the next table.

“but why? I always help close up.” I said, staring at my mom in confusion. Even on a full moon, I stayed till cleaning was done and rode back to the village with her and Aunt Macy

“your uncle wants to see you. He said it was important. I’ll be in the pack house when you’re done, drawing the bath. I’ll see you then baby.”

I chose not to question it and instead gave my mother a kiss on the cheek and headed out to the rumbling old ford. Darren gave me a small, sad smile. “why does Uncle Derek want to see me?” I asked as we pulled out onto the tiny road in the direction of out pack.

Darren signed. “I’m not supposed to tell you, but Alpha Black is your mate.”

“but- “

“your wolf is dormant and that’s the only way we know how to explain that you don’t know it. But he is so adamant.” Darren snarled the last part.

“he smells woodsy. I like his scent.” I mumbled

“he doesn’t smell woodsy, Emmie. He smells like an alpha does, powerful.”

“there’s also these little sparks when we touch and his presence tugs at the dormant part of me,” I admitted.

Darren signed and threw his head back against the headrest, hard. “Then he is your mate.”

I looked down at the folded hands in my lap as the car ride fell silent. Alpha Black, my mate. That was impossible. How could a dormant wolf have a mate? It couldn’t be possible, but then we also didn’t know anything about this blood curse other then it’s effects. Once we arrived back and Darren had parked the truck, he walked with me to the pack house through the silent village. Most of the pack members were gone on a run or were getting ready too. They would be gone until the early hours of the morning when my agonizing screaming would stop emanating from the pack house. Darren left my side to wander to the kitchen when we entered the pack house and I knew then that I had to climb the stairs to my uncle’s office alone. I climbed them slowly and took the familiar turns to the oak door of my uncle’s office. I could smell the faint woodsy scent which only became stronger the closer I grew to that familiar dreary office that I had been scolded in so many times as a child for getting into trouble. Those times had been before the blood curse. The simpler times in live when I was too busy rough housing with Darren, eating cake, and causing my mother grief because I couldn’t stay out of trouble. Sometimes I wished I could have stayed five years old and never known I was cursed from the moment I was born.

I raised my tiny fist to knock. “what the fuck do you mean that I can’t take her home to our house and our pack tonight, Gamma Bell. She is my mate and I won’t let you fucking keep her from me.” Alpha Blacks voice was dangerously calm but seething with so much anger.

“she’s my daughter and you don’t understand the curse. You don’t know what happens to her on the full moon. All I’m saying is that you have to stay here tonight because even if you knew, she cannot travel and once the moon is high enough in the sky, you will see why.” My father’s angry voice snarled.

“he’s right Alpha Black.” My uncles equally calm and angry voice said. “there are certain things, precautions that must be taken. You need to know them, and they will be taught to you tonight. No medicine can cure it, and nothing can prevent it. We’ve tried everything. Even consulted the great healers but not even they could help. We never even believed my niece could have a mate since her wolf is dormant and she has never shifted so you can imagine our surprise. You can leave if you wish, But she cannot. Not on a full moon and I suggest you stay so you can see just what the blood curse means. That way you can decide if you’re equipped for it or if it would be best if you just reject her.” My uncles last words sent a stab straight through my heart and I gasped.

A loud growl echoed out of the office. “I would never fucking reject her.”

I finally got the courage and knocked lightly on the door. All sound within the office stopped as I waited on baited breathe for my uncle’s voice. “Come in” he called

“ahh Emmie baby, how was your shift at the diner.” My father said from where his tall muscular form leaned against the wall across from the windows, his greying auburn hair still slightly damp with sweat from a day of training. Anger tensed his shoulders, but he smiled a soft sympathetic smile at me. His pale blue eyes shining lightly at his pride and joy. His only child and daughter who couldn’t even be the proper werewolf and future beta she was meant to be from the day she was born. He too was feeling pity for me and for once in my life I was so sick of the pity from my own flesh and blood. I glanced at Alpha Black who stood angry and tense in front of the windows, watching me with his chestnut eyes. They were emotionless yet in his presence here among all these men I felt safe. His scent wrapped around me and its pure potency made my head spin. I turned my attention back to my father.

“long and my feet ache. It was a busy day.” I said, not meaning for my voice to be so soft but my body was preparing itself for the night ahead already. I glanced at the clock and signed as I noticed it was already nearly ten thirty. “I should really get downstairs.”

My uncle signed from where he leaned against his rather large desk. “it is late but first Emmie we- “

“I know. Alpha Black is my mate. Darren told me after I pried it out of him but deep down I think I knew. His presence seemed to pull at that dormant part of me, Uncle,” I shivered. It was so close to time. I looked at the tall handsome Alpha and met his chestnut gaze once again. “Don’t be mad at Darren, he didn’t want to tell me, but you know how persistent I can be.”

“Emmerence.” Alpha Black said. My name sounded so foreign yet so right on his tongue. “I- “

My mother suddenly appeared in the doorway, tears already formed in her green eyes as she looked sadly at her mate. My mother was a strong woman, the strongest id ever known, but the full moon always seemed to break her. Knowing how much pain her daughter would be forced to endure and word had surely spread of my finding a mate. Which meant she also knew that I would soon be gone, whisked away by the big, bad alpha black. “I’m sorry to interrupt brother, but Emmie really should be getting downstairs.” she whispered light.

“why?” Alpha Black growled.

“because it’s almost time for the full moon to start taking effect, Alpha Black.” I said meekly as I stared at him. That familiar tug pulling at the dormant part of me.

“Sebastian,” He growled “I am not your alpha. I am your mate. Call me Sebastian.”

“ok” I hesitated for a moment. “Sebastian.” His name flowed off my tongue so easily. So right. He tensed for a moment and closed his eyes as if savoring the moment, but he wouldn’t for long. I could feel it deep in my bones. It was time. It was time for my mate to see just how broken I was because on my bloodline and for a moment I was worried he wouldn’t want me.

But only for a moment.

~

“why the fuck is he tying her up?” Sebastian growled from where he leaned against the wall next to the bathroom. I could hear my mother busying herself dumping more ice into my bath. My father simply ignored him and continued to tie the last rope around my ankle. I hated the scabs that they would leave but they had learned quick that if I wasn’t tied down, I would claw at my own skin and rip it open as if I could stop the pain by tearing myself apart. When we had first come down to the room, my uncle, father, Sebastian, and my mother had all crowding in while I had stripped to my bra and underwear. It helped the ice bath to work.

Sebastian had protested to that too. Saying no man but him should get to see me so under dressed. My uncle reminded him, quite impolitely, that everyone in the room but him had changed my diapers. My father harshly inputting his say into the comment from Sebastian, something along the line of the necessary precautions but I hadn’t been paying much attention. My cheeks were still burning scarlet from the diaper comment by my uncle. I glanced at the clock against the wall. The little hand so close to the eleven. The large hand only minutes away from the twelve.

“Brace yourself,” my uncle said. He never stayed for the screaming. Neither did my father, only my mother ever stayed. “and remember, we can’t help her, we’ve tried.”

I didn’t see them leave, but I heard the click of the door. I didn’t get to dwell on it long before the pain started, blossoming out from my stomach until it consumed my entire body. That’s when the first scream started drowning out all other sound in the room. My body thrashing violently against the mattress as I tried to jerk my hands free. I wanted to claw at my skin. Anything to stop the burning searing pain. I felt like I was being ripped apart, into tiny little pieces for my family to pick up off the ground. My screams grew louder as the pain made my head throb and the ropes cut into my flesh as I thrashed violently about. I would have scabs in the morning like I always did from thrashing so violently that the ropes would eventually rub my wrist bloody. Vaguely over my own screams, I could hear my mother sobbing quietly on the floor beside me. The sounds of angry male shouts and things breaking in the pack house.

I could never keep track of time when the pain hit, but four hours always felt like forever and after four hours of screams and thrashing, I finally stilled against the mattress. The pain gone and my body aching and tired. Exhaustion was slowly taking the place of the pain as my eyelids fought to stay open. But it wasn’t long before the shivering started, and the fever started to burn. I was so cold, laying here so exposed with no blanket to cover me, but I knew that one touch to my skin and anyone could feel the scorching heat. Like always I felt my father’s gentle hands untie the ropes and gently lift me from the worn mattress, my head falling gently against his broad shoulder. He lowered me into the ice bath. The chilly water lapping at my hot skin and cooling it so that my blood didn’t start to boil, and my fever would drop a few degrees or at least stop climbing in temperature. I shivered harder. My body feeling cold even though it burned as hot as an oven and would for the rest of the night. My mother set on the edge slowly dribbling icy water from a rag over my face.

“why the fuck are you putting her into an ice bathe for if she’s freezing? You’re going to fucking kill her.” Sebastian. He was angry, I could feel it suddenly thrumming through my skin.

“feel her skin,” my father’s voice snapped. “not putting her in an ice bath would be like killing her. After the pain always comes the scarlet fever.”

A large hand pressed itself to my forehead, tingles shooting across my skin. Sebastian cursed as he felt just how hot my skin had truly become. “and there’s nothing to stop it.”

“no, and it happens every full moon. Like clockwork. If you accept my daughter as your mate, then this is what you must contend with. You must do it the same way you saw. If you don’t tie her she’ll claw at her skin till it rips open. If you don’t put her in the ice bath, the fever will take her and for three days after she is bed bound. She has no wolf to heal her.”

“please” I whispered, my voice so weak I wasn’t sure Sebastian had heard me, “please don’t reject me.” What brought on my plea, I did not know. But something deep in me told me despite the rumor, that he wasn’t the type of alpha who would hurt his destined mate. Maybe everyone else, but never me.

I let the darkness finally take over and consume me.

I was running. The forest floor pounding under my feet as I fought to get back to the house.

To the one man who could save me from the four-legged beasts chasing me.

Beast like the man I was married to but rogue ones without a pack.

Rouges thirsting for the blood of the great alphas mate

Oh, why had I left so late and wandered so far without him

And Annabelle.

Annabelle needed her mother.

She had a strong father, but no girl deserved to be without her mother

The wind whipped my red hair against my face as I ran. As hard as I could

But I knew the beasts were gaining on me, and quickly.

I wasn’t a wolf, I couldn’t outrun them.

So close, I was so close.

I could see the lights of the pack house in the distance.

But suddenly I was being tackled. The large wolf body pinning me to the forest floor.

Large teeth ripping into the flesh of my arm as another set tore into the flesh of my calf.

I screamed his name as the pain blurred my vision with tears. His shouts as his figure ran towards us like his life depended on it

But I knew it was too late as I rolled, and the larger wolf lunged for my throat.

“take care of Annabelle. Take care of our daughter.” I managed to scream as the teeth of the wolf, the rouge found its target.

Oh, my dear sweet Annabelle, mamma is so sorry was my last thought as the darkness consumed me.