“Well are you just going to stand there or are you going to walk over and give your mother-in-law a hug?”The mere idea of it makes me feel like I'd barf.She sits pretty on one of the couches. One of my couches.I feel multiple emotions flow through me at the sight of her, but I'd always known a confrontation would happen one day.I expected her to come one day or the next, but right now, the sight of her makes me feel like she’s a bit too much to handle.Hunter’s mother stares at me with calm purple eyes and her hair packed up in a bob. There’s an ornate pin going through it that gleams as the ray of the sun touches it. Dressed in a simple yet fashionable dress, she looks like she’s just about ready for work.But she’s the Nightshade Matriarch.The former Luna, a woman I once thought… would be like a second mother to me.Every day is a working day for her, and those she works on always feel the sting of it.I take a shallow breath and push away the pain that seems to cloud my heart,
Saying surprise is what flows through me right now would be an understatement. It’s something similar to surprise, and shock, but just confused, and not with the explosiveness of it all.It’s cold.“Excuse me?”Hunter’s mother brings her gaze back to me and there’s something hard in it as she repeats.“I said you have to come back to the pack with me. There’s one last duty you have to perform as Luna.The huff of air that leaves my lips is incredulous because, “No.”Hunter’s mother stares at me in a quizzical manner but I'm not playing this game with her. “With all due respect, I really do not give a single brain cell about anything related to the Nightshade pack. That pack was not there for me when I needed it to be. You, the warriors, even down to the maids and omegas, everyone got more respect than the Luna, everyone was treated as a person, everyone except meI have no duties to the Nightshade pack, and lest you forget, I am NOT the Luna of the Nightshade pack, not anymore.”Thi
“What’s… happening?”Roman slides up beside me with a slight smile on his face and I give him amused stink eyes because he’s actually here.“Y’know you don’t need to come back from work at the slightest herald of trouble though, do you?”Roman looks away chuckling and I grin impishly as I fold my hands in front of my chest, “I can handle some things.”I feel Roman nodding as a sensation at the back of my mind and I’m happy he agrees, that is until he says, “What’s the use of being a CEO though if I can’t leave work whenever I want so I can assist my pregnant wife in doing damage control?”A slow blush spreads across my cheeks when I hear that and I walk closer to my husband, sighing lightly when he wraps his hand around my waist and I cuddle up against him, murmuring, “I wasn’t doing damage control, and this isn’t damage control.This is… Hunter is trying to calm his mother down after we had a heated conversation…. I swear I don't know what came over me to make me speak that way.”My
Roman leaves, stopping at the door briefly to give me a look before he walks out. His message flows in through the mate bond a moment later, and it fills me with reassurance.“I’ll be in one of the parlors, just around the corner.”I can already feel him imprinting images of the hall into my mind as he walks and it sends trills of emotion up my spine to see he truly isn’t as far as he says he is.I see the couch he sits on, the book he picks up, and the grapes he picks a small bowl of, grabbing a spoon and scooping some into his mouth.I snicker quite loudly when I see that despite Hunter’s heavy gaze on me. When Hunter’s look turns even more serious, I mask the amusement on my face and I stare at him with a neutral gaze.Hunter’s eyes threaten to drag me off someplace else.Somewhere that isn’t here and with clenched teeth and a frown on my face I snap at him, “Stop that.”Hunter’s smile annoys the shit out of me as he shows it and asks, “Stop what?”I watch the light glow to his ey
‘“You’re joking.”Hunter’s look turns borderline menacing as his brows draw together and his face forms a deep frown,“Do I look like I'd joke with something like this?”I’m still not convinced so I chuckle and give him a stare, “You’re joking. You’re clearly joking, this is just some sick joke to get me back to your pack.”“Diane’s carrying my child, Scarlett! She and that child could die when the time for her to give birth comes if you don’t come to do your final duties to the pack.”I take a deep breath, because this is the last time I want to hear anything like “duties to the pack” used in the same vein as me and the Nightshade pack.“I Have no duties to your pack Hunter. I never did.I was the baby machine you locked up, remember?”“That was in the past, Scarlet.”“So why do I suddenly have duties that need attending to in your pack now? Is there anything I'm not being told here?”I see my question hit Hunter right in the face like I expect it to and I’m satisfied when I see it
Roman stares at me a bit flabbergasted when I tell him.His expression is surprised, then unbelieving, and then he releases a really low scoff. Something so insignificant, yet something that shows me he’s not happy with what is happening, or happy with it at all.“Is that really necessary?” I nod slowly and watch the conflicted look that crosses Roman’s face.I get a tight chest whenever I think of it too so I don’t. I just ignore whatever feeling plants itself in my chest when I imagine having to do that.“Hunter said my absence has cast a shadow of death around the pack. They’ve… they’ve had nine wolves die in the past four months.One of them was a young boy. Barely ten years old.”The distraught scream of a mother rings in my mind, lifelike and almost real. The need to bury my face in my palm and cry overcomes me.“No, Hey Scarlett look at me?”My eyes sting with tears but I direct my gaze to Roman all the same, trying to keep a tough front. He stares deep into my eyes as he cr
My eyes flutter open to something wet on my head, and Roman’s scent, pine, and forest, fills my nose.I can see the look of concern on his face.The worry lining his brows and the apprehension behind the casual calmness his expression gives off. He smiles softly when he sees my weak attempt to open my eyes, and the presence of the wet towel disappears as he takes it off, dropping it into a bowl instead as he asks, “How are we feeling this morning?”Roman’s soft husk of a tone sends pleasure rocking through every part of my body.His eyes are soft yet intense on me, and the sight of him in casual clothes has me chuckling weakly.I nod, smiling as best I can and finding my voice still a sore rasp as I respond, “We’re feeling a bit better. Thank you for asking.”Roman crouches by the side of the bed and takes one of my hands in his, placing a kiss on the back, at the base of my wrist, and where my palm connects to my fingers.His affection sends waves of love radiating through me and I s
“No Scarlett.”Roman’s jaw is locked tight and there’s barely any indication that he’s going to listen to me. There’s a bitter frown on his face, like he’s annoyed i’m even asking this and he can’t understand it, yet he cannot hate me or reprimand me for it.He can only say no.I let out a shallow breath and reach for Roman’s hand, smiling softly as he allows me take it and I stare into his eyes, “But the women, Roman…”“Can wait and they will NOT expect you to make a trip to their pack when they never considered you their Luna in the first place. Those women were there when you were being abused, weren’t they? They saw you whenever you dropped Maya off at school, one of them would definitely have heard something, but did any of them do anything?”Roman’s words light up a fire in my chest and a bitterness in my throat. It feels like I’m trying to swallow a stone and he stops the moment he sees his words are hurting me. He doesn’t mean for them to hurt me and I hear it in his mind bef
Hi wonderful readers.First of all, I’d like to say thank you for reading so much and so far. Thank you for the time invested into this book.Without you, nothing would have been possible, so thank you for that.We have come to the end, and while it is a bit abrupt, I’d like to clarify some things.The book is already at 290 thousand plus words, I was really worried about its readability because anything longer would probably scare readers off. I don’t know how everything usually operates because I am a mildly new author on the platform and this is my first completed book, but it felt like Luna Scarlett was getting long, and if I was to go further into settling some other points in the story….. It’d have been way longer.Now to pick up some of the points I left unfilled in the story (Without giving any spoilers of course.) (Okay, maybe one spoiler, or two :)The fact that Hunter’s mother killed Oliver: I’d say this would have led into a whole other story, and it will, it’s basically
Roman carries me in his arms.Diane is helped along by the mage.We’re laid on beds and the pain from the contractions almost makes me pass out.“Your body’s burning, Scarlett.”I feel water enveloping me and I hear Diane’s low low grunt as she’s laid into the pool too.The contractions make everything feel hard and painful. My mind slips in and out of a haze and the water is red, so red, but through it all Roman stays with me.His red eyes are as clear and pure as two scarlet moons.The indoor swimming pool is converted into a labor room the moment the doctors arrive. I open my eyes weakly to see a whole team of them, strange faces in blue overalls, and the smell of the hospital lingering in the air.The contractions hit again, and this time Roman helps me onto a table as I grunt and cry my way through them.This is stronger than anything I've ever felt.I hear one of them tell Roman firmly, “If you want to be here, wear one of these.”Roman is back at my side in less than a minute,
Scarlett’s pov.Each blast of energy I let out makes me grit my teeth in pain.The doctor and Myrtle watch me with calm eyes and though it rips my heart to see them standing there like that, I don't stop.The shield over me shimmers with each blast of energy I release and I can see the impatience filling them because they can’t touch me while this is still going on.There’s an impatience to the way Myrtle grits her teeth but I can't bring myself to be happy at that…. because I'm killing him.Hot heavy tears flow down my cheeks and I burst into a sob because I can hear the sound of his pain each time I release my power.His shield is directly linked to his power, to him.I’m like a bomb in a can. He is the can.He can’t contain me.He can’t keep me in.I will go off as many times as I need to. I am a woman. My energy is endless, but while I do it… he suffers.It’s either I stop and get my stomach ripped open, my baby… my child will be killed.I would never forgive myself because it wou
The scarlet glow in his eyes grows in strength and all the dots come together in my head.Elara was never abducted. She orchestrated the attack.The strangeness of the wolves that attacked us was because she had infused them with the gene mutation she stole from me, and Ironclaw warriors weren’t able to do anything but die at their hands, because they had never met anything like that.They couldn’t take over the pack totally, because, like everything that’s stolen, it’s never stable. The look in Elara’s eyes makes me chuckle as another truth hits me and I let her get himself to full strength. I let the shift take him over, and in a moment of nostalgia, the scent of jasmine comes carried on a gentle breeze as little lines appear in the wind.They blaze to life with bright but silent lights, each one swaying as if blown by a light breeze. I see the lines extending through the wall behind me, the room where all those in the packhouse are being held currently. I see them in my mind, from
Roman’s pov.The bond between me and Scarlett stretches taut due to the distance and it’s the first time I've felt something like this between us.Feeling her and barely feeling her at the same time.The cars pull up to the gates of the mansion and I can tell my packhouse has been taken over by foreign forces. No one makes themselves visible when the gates come open, everyone is hidden but the moment we drive in, the gates slam shut faster than they ever have.The feeling of arrows already poised at us sends a light tingle down the side of my neck and I send a message to my father through the mate bond, ~Take the children to the safe house. Drive there like it’s what you always meant to do….Stay safe Father, and keep the children safe.~My father sends a feeling that echoes low on the mindlink, one that tells me he will obey my words to the letter because he is a wolf under my command, and I am his Alpha.But as a father and someone who’s watched me grow into who I am today, he’s
“Scarlett.”A brief silence punctuated by mumbled words and then the word comes again.“Scarlett.”The tone is more insistent this time and my eyes flutter open as a headache burrows it’s way through my head. I groan as i open my eyes fully because my head hurts a lot.Surprise steadily flow s through me when i realise i have been bound. I can barely move my hands or my feet.I try to struggle against the ropes but i can’t, and the voice comes again.“Psst, Scarlett.”I raise my head just the slightest bit, unable to see through the large mound of flesh that’s my belly.I feel my baby moving andd kiclkin, the discomfort stinging me like pins.“No, no need to raise your head.It’s me… the mage.”My fuzzy head clears up enough to remember where i am and what happened to me before i blanked out. I feel my body go rigid as shock courses through mel, a healthy dose of shock and fear.No.I struggle against the ropes.NO. NO. NO.Hunter wouldn’t dare.Hunter would never!“Hunter!”My heart
Walking through the halls of the Nightshade pack has me feeling… not nostalgic.I can remember wallking through here when i came here with Danis once. We delivered wolfsbane to Hunter.Then simply being in the compound had shaken me. It had made images of me back here float around in my mind, and then i knew Hunter would have done something horrible to me and Maya if he had gotten his hands on us.I don’t know what must have caused the sudden self proclaimed change in him, but i wouldn’t risk myself and anyone i know depending on that.I’m only here because Hunter knows who i am now. He knows i cannot be hit or hurt by him, without him suffering consequences.“About the conversation we had the other day.”I turn to look at Hunter and i see the way he maintains eye contact with me for a second before looking away to stare at something else. His voice comes out more sulky than i imagined he wants it to be.“I only knew Oliver.I didn’t have any relationship that was out of the normal w
Scarlett’s pov.It’s a bloodbath.I feel the tang of blood on my tongue, the smell of death in the air, I smell the power leaking off Roman, and as it leaks off him, it goes into me.“Roman…”My voice is hoarse and croaky. I can barely hear it. It’s a rasp that leaves my throat feeling sandy and hollowed out yet Roman hears it.His head snaps to me the moment I whisper his name and I realise now why everywhere seems so silent. There’s not a sound emanating from the forest, not from the archers in the trees, not from the warriors Roman brought along, not even from the birds - probably already scared away by the violence, or the attendants - scared into silence by Roman, currently dotted in large splatters of blood. Roman’s presence jolts when he comes to me.I feel his aura wrap around me faster than anything i have ever felt before, and when he cradles me in his arms, i feel the shift take over him and his claws retract, the red glow from his eyes fade, the heat radiating from him d
Roman’s pov.The world pauses as I feel Scarlett’s anxiety spike through the mate bond.It’s a thick and heavy feeling in my gut.My head snaps to her, searching for any traces of what might be happening and for a minute all I can feel is Maya telling her there’s something wrong with the boy.There’s something wrong with Axios.Before anyone can pull another breath, I feel my wife fill herself with power so pure it leaks into me and sets my nerve endings on fire.“Everybody down, Now!”The blast of wind Scarlett releases makes a boom when it rips out. Screams come from the attendants now on the floor, the shrill whistles of arrows are almost masked by the boom of air but not quite. I see the arrows fly back with the force of a snapped twig and they find targets.Scarlett fills herself with that power again, needing not even a second to fill herself up, already primed for an attack while I'm still trying to make sense of it all.The orders come from my lips not a moment later, “EVERYO