"You are so beautiful, sweetheart." My mother gushes around me, puffing my dress and making sure my hair is in place. She is dangerously close to putting a little tiara on top of this."Beautiful or not, it won't matter much."I have a bad feeling about this and the closer to the naming ceremony we get, the faster my heart is beating in my chest. It's like my body refuses to move. With all the Alphas, the pack hating on me while the prophecy of the Moon Goddess predicts the possible end of the world, I am a bit... stressed."They won't start throwing stones at you, Rose. Whether they like it or not, their Alpha made you Luna and they will respect that as they respect and follow all his orders. Isn't this the law of their kind?" My mother tries to soothe me, but I can sense that she is hesitant to go to the ceremony too.My grandma has to knock on the door, warning that we would be late to make us move.So just like that, full of dread, but also high hopes, I take my seat, at the very e
"Forgive me, my child. For all that you suffered, I am to blame." The Moon Goddess stands, surrounded by darkness, so lonely on the night sky."Is my mom... my grandma...?" I ask first, unconcerned with anything else."Your brave grandmother was hurt, but she survived.""What happened?""People are complex beings. I gave all my children free will to do as they see fit. So their actions, their decisions, have just as complex reasoning. Your grandmother may have been loyal to the pack and the old ways, but that loyalty held no weight in front of the love she feels for you. She thought protecting the pack was a way to protect you, until she saw how her pack hurt you. So when her former Alpha attacked you, she shifted despite her age and jumped to kill him. She managed to hold on enough for you to run away, but was hurt while doing so. The Beta was there and took her to the medic. She will survive. Your mother was unharmed." the Moon Goddess explains calmly, and it feels like a mountain w
"Hello." I am hesitant to say anything else as I don't know who else is with her, but my mother recognizes my voice immediately and bursts out crying. "I'm ok. I really am."I reassure her, but in fact, I start crying too. All the pain that this mess has caused everyone that I love. All this pain that they didn't deserve just because I was naive and I thought I could trust him. He showed me who he was. For all our lives, he showed me time and time again who he is as a person and I was stupid enough to think that the mate bond would miraculously transform him into something else."Is it her?" Someone asks in the background, but my mom can't answer through the sobs so she just passes the phone. "Rose? Oh, my dear, are you alright? Are you safe?"Her voice is weak and she's on the verge of tears too. It takes me a bit until I can answer."Yeah. I'm safe now. It's a long story." I manage to explain in between loud sobs and I hear her sigh in relief."Are you hurt? Do you need anything? To
"What did you just say?" I ask, thinking I heard him wrong."It's a complicated story. But the gist of it is that I am the son of the current Alpha of the BlackBlood pack and all that comes with that title." Damon repeats himself slowly, giving me the chance to process."So the BlackBloods...""They are alive and well. Quite thriving if you ask me. At this point, taking into account the number of members and the territory they control, they are the biggest pack in the world.""But... you said the Moon Goddess... she... you said that you're in the middle between a werewolf and a rogue. And now you say you are an Alpha?" I ask, more and more confused by the entire thing."Well yes. The BlackBlooods themselves are a bit in the middle as they allied themselves with the rogues. Since I ran away from the pack, I am even more like a rogue. But I was never properly exiled. I assume my father still hopes I will come to my senses and become the heir that he desires. All for the good of the pack
I sit next to Damon as he introduces the rest of his people to me. I try hard to memorize the names and the faces, but I already know I'll fail miserably. In total, there are about twenty people. Not all live in the house, but in the neighboring houses too. The street is rented by Damon. Apparently, he opened a business with medicinal herbs and stuff like that when he first arrived in the city and it grew into a pretty profitable thing over time. His knowledge of plants from the rogues of the Amazonian forest helped him. That is how he met Diana, as she was a rogue healer in the first city he ended up in after running away. The rest came with time, happy to join his cause instead of being forced to work for his father."We welcome whoever wants to join after we check their background. Of course, since we are all part of a resistance, if you want to call it that, we don't trust people easily. But we try to protect them if we can." Damon explains."Except for you. Cause you know, you we
#Caroline's perspective#"Luna, the Omegas have arrived safely in the city. There were no rogues on the way." Lola reports as I get ready to join the afternoon training. I missed the one in the morning to deal with all the Omegas business as my dear husband was too busy, locked in his office, obsessing over finding that useless half-breed."Good. Did you tell the men that we sent into the city not to attack them? The entire thing is already problematic. If the other packs find out we also hunted them, we would be even more humiliated.""They received their orders. A few of them inquired when they would be able to return to the pack?"I bite my tongue to not curse Axel out loud. We spent all our money on impressing the guests and he managed to screw the ceremony so badly that we got no alliance out of it. My brother barely managed to convince his Alpha to accept the initial proposal, barely saving our skins. And in this situation, he sends half of our forces into the city to look for t
I scream in my pillow, but I'm not sure why. Embarrassment? Butterflies? Guilt?How will I even face Damon tomorrow after the disaster from earlier? And what the hell happened earlier? Was he really leaning down to kiss me or was it my imagination?I take a deep breath. Not a chance I will clear the mess in my head on my own so I call my mom. Big thanks to Damon for the untraceable phone he gave me after dinner. Apparently, one of the guys, Robert is a technical genius."Mom... How are you?""Hello, sweetheart. Your grandma introduced me to Spanish telenovelas. What about you? Something happened? You said we should limit contact." She answers and I can hear in the background my grandma asking about me too."I know I said, but Damon said this phone should be fine and I really need to talk to you.""Damon?" I can hear her going into another room and closing the door. "Rose, please tell me where you are or with who. I'm dying over here...""I couldn't earlier. I'm sorry. I don't think it
Breakfast the next day is awkward, to say the least.Damon is calm, as always, but I can feel the distance that he put in between us again. Diana seems confused, but is not asking anything and I... I just avoid eye contact with anyone and quietly push my eggs around the plate."A message arrived from the south." Diana breaks the silence finally after going to check the mailbox. I rise my eyebrow at the normal looking envelope with a stamp and she smiles. “We have a system with our spies. Some use phones, some mail, others farts in the wind and smoke signals if they need to. Whatever is safer.”"If it’s good, go ahead. If it's bad wait until I finish my coffee." Damon answers looking at the letter with so much distaste. "Then chug it already, because it's about one of our inside men."He sighs and finishes the entire mug before he takes the letter that Diana was holding. His frown grows deeper and deeper until he ends up throwing the paper away and cursing in a low voice."What happen
"Damon! We really need to hurry!" I try to sound assertive, but it sounds more like a moan. His hand is roaming under my shirt , leaving a burning sensation of pure desire on every inch of skin he touches. I get drunk with his smell, his presence, his love. So much so, that it worries me what I will do when the mate bond finally snaps into place. Will we ever leave this room?But to find that out we really need to leave. Like five minutes ago.I manage to peel Damon off of me with the promise of tonight being our first time as mates and with that we are out the door to Caroline's Alpha ceremony.We drive by the southern packs that managed to rebuild most of what was destroyed in the war. By how things are going, they will become fully independent again in less than a year."The road helped a lot of them connect to resources." I say, proud that we could make it real. My grandma started it by telling me how nice it would be to be able to just drive to her cousin's pack in the north. Wit
Werewolves don't fight in daylight. I think it's one of the first things I remember my teacher saying, way before I could truly comprehend the meaning of it. It was fine until a century or two ago when, if any unlucky human saw anything they would have been considered mad, but now, with phones and cameras in everyone's pocket?We are wolves in the shadow, humans in the light.We were. Until this war. Until the rogues broke every rule we have ever been taught and we had to push ourselves out of everything that felt right in order to defeat them.Once the sun starts to rise, and the piles of bodies gather around the open field, every instinct screams at me to run. To hide. I see everyone around me feeling the same, everyone remembering what we've been taught. Except our enemy, who teached their children that victory must come at any price.I see people so tired, they can't maintain their wolf form. They fall on their knees, so tired they don't raise their heads when the enemy bites off
"This time, everything will work perfectly." Damon seemed confident, even though that never happened before. And I really, really wanted to believe him, mostly because I needed to, but also because he made it seem so real. Like we had a chance.But that chance slips a little bit through my fingers with every look the council throws at each other. Or even worse, with every look they sneak in Thomas' direction. Waiting for him to take a decision, to take the lead. And unfortunately, Thomas is not desperate, he is young and has all the time to be cautious and smart about his decisions.After a bit of bickering, the king explains his reasoning in an avalanche of ill-fitted sentences."It would be unwise to march, while we lose the base." Someone comments."This is absurd!" Thomas finally bursts and shouts at his father. "Damon doesn't have enough men to take over the pack. We left enough warriors there to make sure of that. We can't march back, wasting everything because you got informati
On the second night of the funeral march, once we reach the fourth pack that abandoned their territory, I see Thomas starting to put things together. His father calmed down a lot and is now advancing slower, making sure the sentinels spread in between the bases and the army can maintain the pack link and keep the communication open. No shadow of the Strychnos plant.That's not good."This doesn't feel right." I say to Thomas as we find ourselves walking next to each other."Why are you scared? Even if it's a trap, your mate will protect you. No one will jump to punish a Moon Priestess.""Yeah... But..." I let the silence speak as I look at the ground. I know Thomas looks at me so I brush my hair off my face so he can see my teary eyes."But you're not sure." Thomas tries to sound sympathetic, but I would be a fool not to feel the satisfaction in his voice."He is my mate, he would... protect me.""You know, every time you say the story of your past life, there is one detail that doesn
Caroline is standing so close to me, I can feel her breath on the back of my head. The king wanted her to be on the other side of the little funeral march as Damon called it, but Caroline looked ready to snap a few necks before she would be separated from me."As long as my pack stands, she is my Luna! It is my duty to protect her or die trying!" None of the men in the office questioned her determination, so she was allowed to act as my bodyguard if it came down to it."Wish you'd have been as determined in the last life too." I can't help but clap at her as we make our way to the MoonWalk pack's borders."Yeah... me too." She answers, to my surprise. Usually, when I make remarks like this she counters with the fact that I wasn't powerful or useful enough to be accepted, let alone respected as Luna. She must sense my surprise because she's quick to explain. "I know. That's what I thought all my life, but... I know Omegas who wouldn't have betrayed the pack for all the power in the wor
"Your friend was put in another room." Thomas is by my side when I wake up, gently pressing an ice bag on the left side of my head. But even with that, I can feel every second of Caroline's training throbbing in my head. I bite my lip as i get up and make sense of my surroundings, mostly of the little silver bracelet that stands as proof of the fact that I am not a good liar. If I would have, the king would have trusted me by now."It's fine... I deserved it." I tell him as I grab the hand he offers to help me stand up. He holds it for a second longer than he should and I realize I was staring at him. Well, not at him, at every feature that reminds me of Damon."I'm sorry about earlier. I just... A lot of things happened at once and...""It's ok." No it was not and he is a piece of crap, but if I can't fool the father maybe I can the son? "I was surprised since you said you have a girlfriend and you know... I have a mate.""Yeah... She really doesn't want to be involved with this so s
"I haven't seen you freeze like that since you got a wolf." Caroline snarls at me as she closes the door after us."I wanted to test something.""And?""And it confirmed that the off feeling I had about Thomas was because he was… interested not because of something more sinister." I answer while trying to use the pack link to tell her that she can't, in fact, trust Thomas. But despite everything, I am still blocked."Remind me to complain about this logistics flaw to the Goddess. She can't lock me out forever." I say to Nala, but the ancient she-wolf is not in the mood for joking."She has enough on her plate. You need to find a way to return to the meeting and warn them!""She can't see what is going on?""To make your mate's prison stronger, she locked herself in too. They have no connection to the outside. The only reason you were able to wake up was because I pulled you out by force." Nala explains and my last hope of a plan finally working, as Damon promised, gets tossed down the
I am shaken awake by Caroline, who has a terrified expression on her face. I almost jump out of bed when I see her, but as soon as I open my eyes, she sighs in relief."You sleep like you're on fucking drugs!" She snaps after I ask her what the hell happened. One second I was sitting with Damon in front of a very angry gathering of Alphas, the next, I am pulled back by Nala in a panick.I hear a loud bang on the door before Thomas' voice comes through, full of annoyance and urgency."Listen here, you little pack girl, you have one minute to wake her or I'll..." He doesn't get the chance to finish that pseuodo-threat because I open the door."What the hell happened?""So you're not in a coma.""Oh, come on! I am a good sleeper, but this is ridiculous. And it's not even morning yet!" I point at the pitch black sky outside, wondering how on earth did they figure everything out so fast."Apparently, some Alphas, if not all of them are in some type of coma. Our spies reported that they wou
The Alphas who agreed to help from the start moved closer, pushing the rest to the side so we can discuss a thing or two. I can see Axel with the corner of my eye, but I don't have the courage to face him yet. In the explaining that I did earlier, I had to mention a few things that involved him in the past life and I know he is hurt, but... this requires a longer and more private conversation.Fortunately, everyone is so caught with the entire war thing that no one thinks to ask why Damon stands next to me instead of my mate.Everyone but Luna Karina. When everyone spreads out for a small break, she approaches me with a stormy expression. Damon takes the hint and walks away, all the eyes following him like he's a jailer. With a straight posture and a half-smile, I can see he's enjoying it more than he should, though."I tried to break through this dream a few times. Just like the other Alphas surely did too. I tried to connect with anyone from my pack to try and wake me, but that was