Chapter 5

“What is it exactly you need help with?” I ask Laney, quirking a brow. She sighs and rests the bowl on her knees before turning her fiery green eyes on me. 

“What is a Luna?”

I’m not truly convinced she doesn’t remember our pasts, but she looks confused enough that I take the bait.

“A Luna is a queen among the werewolves.”

“And are there, like, a lot of Lunas?” She lowers her gaze to her stew, stirring it aimlessly with her spoon. 

“There are smaller pack Luna’s, yes. But there is only one true Luna.”

I can feel my phone vibrate against my leg and I curse, knowing exactly who it is. I hold up my finger to her to pause the conversation and stand reaching into my pocket and answering it. 

“You are late,” the surly old man on the other end grumbles.

“Yes, Edgar, I am.” I sigh.

“Should we expect you sometime in the future?” he snaps, and I roll my eyes. 

“I think perhaps you should take the time to remember where you stand in this arrangement” I glance at Laney who is trying to make it look like she isn’t paying attention but I’m no idiot. I stalk further into the dark.

“I will be at the site when I damn well get the chance, and if you try to rush me, I will withdraw all my funding that your ridiculous little pack thrives on.”

“I apologize.” Edgar rushes out quickly. “We just… we have found the temple and started restoration, but no one has found what you are truly looking for. It’s not here, Falcon.”

“Shit!” I tip my head up to the moon that mocks me above through the trees. All these stupid fucking hurdles to jump through just to fulfill a prophecy I’ve long wished to wash my hands of. “What would you like us to do? It would be easier to discuss this all here in person. The warriors seem to have more pep in their step when you are around.”

“Spread them out further. Finding the temple is only half of what we need.” I remind him, glancing over my shoulder back toward the campsite.

“We have, Falcon,” he responds, sounding tired. “You know, unlike you, I age. I am confined to this old body that moves slower. Things would run smoother if you were here to oversee this all.”

“You aren’t that old, Edgar.” I frown, and he chuckles.

“I am seventy-six. You knew my great-great-great-grandfather and those before him. You know they lived a little longer than eighty.”

“I don’t have time for this right now. Just. I’m on my way to the site, but it will take me time to get there.” 

“Sure, sure. I will do my best to expand the search grid until you come.”

I don’t respond as I hang up the phone, shoving it back into my pocket before stalking back to the site. Laney still sits where I left her, though her bowl has been refilled. I can’t help but smile at her eating. No one wants a scrawny weak Luna. Even if she won’t truly be Luna for very long. 

“I interrupted your evening,” she says after a beat of silence. “You are needed somewhere else, I take it?”

“Just competent workers thinking they are incapable. I swear sometimes they are worse than the incompetent ones.”

Laney nods her head in understanding, though with her age I doubt she has worked a day in her life. 

“So, what is it you do?”

I ponder for a minute.

“I’m an archeologist. In short, I search for historic werewolf artifacts from thousands of years ago.” I shrug. Her eyes grow wide and she swallows a bite of food. 

“That’s a pretty cool job! So you travel a lot. Is that why you are out here in the woods?”

A low laugh escapes me. The real reason I’m out here in the woods is her. I felt her awaken in my soul yet again and knew that she would find me. She always does. Though admittedly we have never found each other this early before. I only felt her presence twenty-four hours ago and yet here she is, in my camp, only miles from my mansion.

“No, sometimes I like the silence of camping. We are on my property. My house is up the way,” I say, shrugging. “What city did you grow up in?” 

“Hollow’s Edge.” She says, going for a third bowl of stew.

Hollow’s edge is nearly three hundred miles south of where we are now. She couldn’t have traveled that many miles in twenty-four hours. Even for a werewolf that’s far too fast.

“How long have you been in the woods?”

“Uh, well, I ran into the guys chasing me in Woodsvale. I was traveling to the place where my adoption records are. When I turn eighteen, I have the right to access them and try to find my sister.”

“You have a sister?” I ask, surprised. As far as I am aware, she has never had any family in her past life, save the first life. Her parents always befell a tragic death. It’s part of her curse. To be alone and find her own way. 

“Yes, well, did. Who knows if she is even alive anymore?” She shrugs like it’s no big deal, but I can sense the fear in her. I’ve had far too much time on my hands to learn to read people and the air around them.

“Is that what you need help with? Finding your sister? I have the resources to do that if you wish.”

She sighs, placing the empty bowl to the side before standing and pondering my offer.          

“No, I mean, yes, that would be great. But with all of this,” she motions to her body, “You know, wolfish stuff and vampires chasing me, I don’t exactly want to bring that to her doorstep if she is alive.”

“Ok, so what is it you plan to do next?”

She groans in frustration, pressing her elbows into her knees, her fingers scraping through her hair.

“I need to know what they want and how to get them off of my back.”

I watch her in distress, trying to push down the desire to save her from the monsters on her heels. In her most recent fifteen lives, I found it was much easier to kill her if I detached myself. It’s easy when all you do is slaughter the same person over and over again. One who always remembers her past lives. One who has done nothing but grow darker and darker with every life. But Laney… She may be the same Luna, the same soul, but she is so different. And it’s completely confusing my better judgment. 

“Did they say anything when they were chasing you? Give you any clues?” I ask, standing to take her empty bowl.

“Yes,” she whispers. “They kept calling me Luna. I thought they were maybe chasing the wrong girl, but they licked me. Then they claimed they were just early. Right after that, I was in pain and a burst of energy knocked them all flat.”

I sigh and take a seat next to her, both of us staring at the fire, my skin all too aware of her presence and the past we share. A past full of heartache and pain, but always an underlying love. Which makes me hate myself more every day. It’s a disgrace to me and my future mate, to love the woman who stands between us, yet here I am. Unable to deny the fire that burns within us. 

“You grew up in a human world?” I ask.

“Of course. I am human- er. Rather. I was until yesterday,” she mumbles, sounding bitter. “I didn’t ask for any of this stupid shit.”

“In the werewolf world, there is a Luna who will come in her last life and either reunite the fallen pack or be the destruction of the werewolf ways as we know them. She reincarnates after every death, and very few can determine if she is back. Usually, she has always remembered her past lives.”

“And they think I am her?” She asks with a scoff. When I don’t respond she laughs, a sound I refuse to admit makes my chest flutter dangerously.

“There is no question about it, Laney. You are the Luna reincarnate.”

“What? How could you possibly know that?”

I frown, trying to come up with a plausible reason. 

“In every life, the Luna has protectors. Those who always find her and do their best to keep her safe. I am one of those protectors” I lie through my damn teeth, but I remind myself what is on the line. I haven’t spent thousands of years trying to keep the werewolf community afloat without her help to ruin it by telling her it will be her death. 

“Why would I need protection?” She asks bewildered. 

“There are those who believe you will save the werewolf world and those who believe you will destroy it. Both sides will do whatever it takes to ensure you do not end the werewolf ways as they are.”

Her eyes widen. “But it can’t be me! I’ve never lived a life other than the pathetic eighteen years I just lived!”

“I don’t know why you don’t remember, Laney. You are supposed to. But it doesn’t change the truth. And the truth is you are the Luna. And you will either unify or destroy the supernatural world as we know it. This means those men chasing you and those vampires? They want you dead.”

She stands and paces away from me before turning back, her eyes full of fear.

“But you will help me?” She asks though it sounds damn near like she is begging. Not a usual tactic the renowned Luna would ever deploy. “Right? You said you are a protector?”

“Yes,” I say once more. “I will help you get to the temple where you will claim your place.” And then I will drive the dagger I have been looking for through her chest and reunite the werewolves myself.