*Arealla*I felt the moonlight getting stronger as it encompassed my skin entirely. It was like a force coming over me, and I couldn't help but surrender to it.But I didn't fear it; it felt warm and comforting, exactly what I needed in the dark and foreboding dampness of the cave. I collapsed on the floor of the cell. But I didn't feel myself collapsing. I felt myself lifting, waking up again.And then there was blackness, a total nothing.And then I was awake.I stared around me. I was standing upright in the most beautiful forest that I had ever seen. There were evergreen trees everywhere, the floor a soft forest carpet. I also felt energized; I could stand forever and never get bored or tired.There was no doubt in my mind that I was in some place filled with magic, deep and ancient.I could feel it in the air around me.I was dreaming, and I wasn't, all at the same time. This was happening in my head, and it was real. It was almost impossible, and I knew that
*Arealla*Marcus looked at me confused for a moment, almost like he couldn't trust what he was seeing. And almost like what I said made little sense to him.I couldn't be sure entirely what he was thinking. I wasn't the Moon Goddess. I couldn't read thoughts the way she could.Though there was no doubt in me that I had some of the gifts of the Moon Goddess in me. There was no doubt that more than just some of her power flowed through me now.But I still wasn't her."I've seen you before," he whispered, unsure of his own words.I could feel the warmth of his skin through my palm. I could smell his scent, as wild as the forest. I could smell his strength.There was the difference between us. I could tell my own scent now, too. I smelled like moonlight, but he smelled like the forest. His scent was strength itself, and mine was calming.It was a strange awakening. But it was an awakening.I was sure that I would be able to smell when someone was lying or telling the trut
*Arealla*Marcus and I lay on the bed, still joined as one, long after we had spent ourselves with each other.I wanted nothing more than to just stay with Marcus like that forever. But it wasn't possible. We weren't safe. We still had to wake; we still had to escape Jason and whatever he was planning. Even though Jason had me locked in a cell, it was the both of us that he held captive.But Marcus didn't know everything yet, and I supposed that the time had arrived for me to tell him what had happened to me."It was Jason," I told Marcus. "He took me."My voice was soft as I spoke, and it surprised me a little. I had thought that I would be louder and clearer than this.But I also understood where my reticence was coming from. Where my fear was coming from.It wasn't just that Jason had me in a cave locked up somewhere. It was also that he had tricked me. That I had trusted him, and I had trusted him more than once. But each time he had shown me who he really was, and I
*Arealla*I trusted Marcus' words, and I placed my head on his chest. It wouldn't be long now, and then all of this would fade. But I trusted that he would find his way to me again.I closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat. I knew I had to sleep here, in the Moon sleep, and then I would wake in the real world.I felt my eyelids growing heavy, I couldn't open them now if I tried. Marcus was still speaking when I fell asleep, his words soothing me.Then I woke from the Moon sleep, and instantly, I wished that I could somehow go right back into it.I had been with Marcus. I had felt invincible. My power had been at my touch, my wolf had been at my side, and my mate and I had been one.But now that I had awoken, none of that was my reality any longer.And I awoke to find Jason leering over me, his face twisted in anger and hatred.I didn't think, I didn't even pause. I just reacted.I lashed out at him, my claws lengthening and protruding as I slashed, and I felt his
*Arealla*Cold. Dark. Damp. A musty smell filled the air and the sound of dripping water echoed relentlessly in my cell. A "cell" was too good of a word to describe the place where Jason had me chained up like an animal. It was more of a cave that had been slightly altered to suit my captor's needs.I coughed. The chains rattled and the metal cuffs cut through my already raw wrists, it drew a small amount of blood. The lack of food and water kept me from healing. How long had I been here? I had lost count of the hours. Dehydration was not working well for my cognition.Jason had meant what he'd said when he told them not to give me anything. I hadn't so much as had a drink of water since they brought me in here. And I knew that at least two nights had passed already.It might be longer, but I couldn't tell. I was starting to see black dots across my vision, and I knew it was dehydration but I had no idea how bad it was.I was not even sure what I was feeling anymore. It ha
*Marcus*The dream ended, and I awoke with a start.I almost couldn't believe what had just happened. But it made everything fit so perfectly into place. Everything that had happened these past few hours. Arealla had not left me.***-Flashback-I turned away from them and headed straight back to the house. There was no way that I could get the image out of my head. No matter what I did, all I could see was Arealla sitting on the bank of the river, naked. And Jason sitting beside her, leaning in toward her.I reached our home, and I went through the front door. I didn't make it further than the living room, and I collapsed on the couch. I put my head in my hand, and tried to force myself to calm down.There was more to it than this. There had to be.But what else could it have been?The last time I had let my mind jump to conclusions, but how was it possible for me to come to any other conclusions right now?I had seen her sitting naked with him on the riverbank. Ar
*Marcus*The hours passed in a whirlwind. I went back to the place where Arealla and Jason had been, taking Ben and Liana with me. But there was nothing to be found there.Liana had found traces of a wolf that wasn't part of our pack, but that was all that she had found. It was enough for her to make the assumption that Arealla had been taken.Given everything that Ben had learned, everything I had seen, there was nothing else that could be surmised.And yet.There had still been the niggling feeling at the back of my mind. What if she really had run away?But then the dream happened. And it slotted everything perfectly into place. It explained every single detail that I had been confused about, and it gave me a way forward.I was able to see her, and she was mine, in a way that I never thought could possibly happen. She glued the pieces of my fallen world and gave me sense, gave me reason. Having her the way we had only made me want to have her back in flesh with me.H
*Marcus*I didn't care what the Healer said. I didn't want to hear it.It was the first time that I felt that way. But Arealla had to recover. She had to get better. Which meant that I had to ignore the words she had just spoken. To accept it would be to give up, and there was no way that I would ever give up on Arealla.I glanced at her pale and bruised form. Her breathing was so shallow and sparse that it was barely there. Seeds of despair were already being planted by the thought that she would never be whole again.No! I refused to give in to my fears."Alpha?" the Healer asked.I had been silent for a while, my expression most likely pained and contorted. I took a deep breath and turned to the healer."Say I made contact with her pack. The one she had been born into. Would their healer perhaps know a way of restoring her to full health?" I asked.The Healer Trisha looked hesitant. This was all very new for her, too. She was used to having the answer, she was used t