Chapter 13
VESSA
Abeam of moonlight shines into the bedroom, settling at my lap. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it—the heartline, the channel of the mating bond. It really exists. And mine is tethered to the deadliest lycan in Agathora.
I’ve witnessed my fair share of Maurleen and Wyatt’s unspoken exchanges through gentle touch.
Watching them communicate so intimately elicited a degree of loneliness so cold I grew apathetic towards the thought of ever finding someone who one day might truly understand me.
Albeit I wasn’t prepared to encounter the depths of Axe’s pain—to physically feel the impact of my own blow. It set something off in me.
I flick on the nightstand lamp. The top drawer reveals a phone charger, pink crystals, and a deck of vintage tarot cards.
In the lower compartment, I find a stack of colorful composition notebooks full of spells, sigils and herbal remedies passed down from Maurleen’s family.
And there, beneath a discreet loose panel, is her journal.
Its pages are filled with graphic details about my life and hers, insights as to how one day our paths would eventually intersect.
All the proof I needed to believe in her visions was recorded here.
Over a dozen years of entries. I flip to a random page towards the middle of the journal.
The passage is dated back nine years ago.
The girl takes the stage, draped in silver from head to toe.
The young empress commands the actors, daring them to try to burn as brightly as she does.
Every face is glued to her mesmerizing performance, beholding what can only be a riveting, trailblazing star.
Little does the young actress know, she possesses more power than the monarch she is portraying.
She may win a standing ovation from the audience tonight, but one day she will bring the entire lycan kingdom to its knees.
A shudder echoes through me as I reread the final sentence. Was this the moment Maurleen realized that I was destined to be a Luna? That, as big as my dreams once were, I was made for more?
Perhaps within Bleeding Sun lies a family that cannot be broken. Isn’t that what Axe is offering me?
Switching off the light, I open the drapes and watch the darkness draw back.
Something about this shimmering pearl in the night sky has always called to me.
Even as a child I would often stare at it for hours, transfixed by its luminous glow.
To the stars, I would whisper my hopes and dreams of performing for audiences all over the world.
To the moon, I confessed the secrets I was too afraid to speak out loud.
The moon is the best listener I’ve ever known. Perhaps the earth feels the same, loving her so profoundly that, unlike the other planets, it only needs one in its orbit. Though it offers no warmth on this waning winter night, the moon fills me with wonder—and then, a mission.
Stepping lightly, my feet carry me down the hall and into the lounge. Axe is sprawled out on the floor, dozing peacefully as the orb’s soft ambience paints his resting features. Gods, why does he have to be so beautiful?
Even now, I’m just as overcome as the moment I emerged from the cabin. The way the wolf knelt beside me, curling into me. My safety never felt more assured. Still, as a man, he intimidates the hell out of me.
Slowly, I sink to my knees. As I reach for his arm, he shoots up and catches my wrist, the lightning-fast reaction startling me.
Unfurling his grip, Axe rubs his eyes, making sure what he’s seeing is real. “Everything alright?”
I nod, though my heart does an involuntary flutter. “You have yourself a deal.”
We seal the bargain with a warm handshake. Under the moonlight, my heart swells with a feeling I thought had long abandoned me.
Hope.
As the sun completes its morning salutation, Axe rounds the back of his car to shake Wyatt’s hand. Maurleen wraps an arm around her mate’s torso.
“If the two of you decide to have a mating celebration, we'll be there." She shoots me a wink like she already knows the date printed on the invitation.
“No pressure,” Wyatt coughs.
In my mind, I recite the instructions she whispered in the privacy of her bedroom while I dressed.
“Wait until after the next full moon. If I don’t have any new visions before then, I will come up to join you, and we’ll come up with a way to tell him.
In the meantime, just lay low and charm his pants off. ”
Axe gives the trunk a good slam and we drive off. In a flash, the small town of Pinesdale fades away behind us.
I manage to sleep through the next two hours as Axe listens to a symphony of violins and fluttering flutes. A pothole in the road jolts me awake, lifting my head from where it has slumped against an arm of solid muscle. Oops.
Not even an hour after lunch, Axe pulls off the freeway to stop into a fast-food restaurant, jogging back to the car about ten minutes later with three double cheeseburgers with extra bacon.
A half-smile forms on the lycan’s lips. “Man’s gotta keep that hungry wolf in check.”
I watch in horror as he annihilates the first sandwich in three bites, only to cringe at the sight of crumbs collecting on the impeccably clean floor mats.
“Everyone has their vices,” he shrugs, dabbing the corner of his mouth with a crumpled napkin.
As we whip back onto the interstate, I suddenly feel far less insecure about mine.
Axe peers at me through his periphery, cracking the windows. "I'll bet you have a sweet tooth, don't you?"
I tear my gaze away from the endless stretch of snowy tundra. "What makes you say that? Is it my scent?"
He shrugs. “Just a hunch.”
My lips betray me, tugging upwards. “Alright, fine.
I'll let you in on a little something," I begin, shifting in my seat so that our shoulders are nearly touching.
"If you're trying to get on my good side, a little chocolate won't hurt. But if it’s my heart you’re after, then you’ll give me black licorice. "
"Doesn't that taste like rat poison?"
"Don't tell me you’ve ingested arsenic before.”
"Let's just say that when I was a teenager, Qinnu and I were involved in some outrageous prank warfare."
The lycan’s eyes twinkle with mischief as he recounts the days when he and Qinnu would conspire against his older sister and her friends.
"Demi, being three years older, first in line for the Alpha title, and a total snob, thrived on humiliating the warrior initiates. On multiple occasions, she and Tesni would steal our clothes while we were in the showers or right as we were returning from shifts. Make us walk all the way to the front of the property where they were hanging out with the girls by the courtyard to get them back. Another time, on a hot afternoon after training, she fooled Qinnu into guzzling a protein shake blended with toxic mushrooms she found in the woods.”
I fight the urge to gag. "That's awful. I mean older sisters can be ruthless, but . . .”
"Oh, she was a terrorist. But we got her back. Took almost a month to plot it out, but we got her good."
"Do tell,” I say, finding this meddling side of him quite appealing.
"Later that spring, she and her partner at the time were planning to attend a school dance—Spring Fling, was it?
Anyways, the morning of, the girls drove to Hichano to get instant tans and Qinnu paid the front desk attendant a hundred bucks to fuck with their formulas.
When Demi and Kiersten took their goggles off, we could hear their screams from the parking lot. "
"Good gods.”
Axe snickers. "Those blondes were so dark it looked like they were coated in shit. Needless to say, they didn't go to the dance. Their big date night was spent sulking and scrubbing it all off."
"Wait. Demi and Kiersten were together?”
It isn't extremely common, but lycans can find their mate in someone of the same gender. Of course, offspring don’t come naturally for them, though.
He fumbles with the radio, annoyed by the static blare of lost reception. "Demi ended things with Kiersten shortly after she met her mate, Chris."
For some reason, Axe stiffens at the memory.
Axe
To avoid the enforcer tolls along the Heartlands, I steer northwest, parallel to the Bissex border.
Within three hours, Vessa and I reach Lake Verdant.
Named for its jewel-colored waters, the emerald landmark is legendary among the Silverback wolves of Belcarra.
Surrounded by miles of robust cedars and spruces, its waters are unusually warm year-round, drawing humans, bears, and other locals during the waning months of summer.
It also happens to be one of my favorite places to get away when given the rare opportunity.
Through her window, Vessa watches the sun slowly set over the sparkling lake, hooking a wisp of hair behind her ear. "How is that real?"
As I try to find a way to answer her, my nose catches a foul, coppery stench. Blood. Lots of it.
Human male and canine, my wolf detects. We should alert Demi.
My hand finds Vessa’s knee, instantly grabbing her attention. "We need to pull over for a second. Someone down there is injured."
Her face pales. “Shouldn't we call enforcers?"
I pull off the gravel road, shaking my head in refusal. "By the time they get here, whatever attacked will be long gone."
“What do you mean, whatever attacked?”
I park behind the steel road barrier. Reaching into the center console, I hastily load a magazine with eight rounds and cram it into my pistol.
I flick the safety latch and check the smaller piece next.
Luckily, that one’s already loaded. Once secured, we exit the car and descend the dirt road.
Daylight recedes as we slip into the forest where I zero in on the scent, filtering out all others that might derail me from the source of the bloodshed.
While my sister’s scouts comb through the area routinely, there isn’t any recent trace of lycans afoot.