Bonus cont. （Jasper POV）
We rounded up our men who were healthy enough to run a search or fight. Those injured in the battle earlier weren’t eligible to volunteer.
Nealin was good at his job and he suggested we have a few wolves secretly watch over the Red Moon pack to be sure nobody switches sides and tries to help their warrior friends to betray us.
Mira is gone because of them so if a single one of them betrays her I will kill them myself.
“Good work, Nealin, thank you. Everyone knows where they have to go” Devran waved everyone off. It was left to me, him, and Melanie in his office.
“How could she do this? Why would she ever sacrifice herself for strangers?!” Melanie asked in frustration.
“It’s for our pack not theirs” I corrected her. The woman said our pack would thrive because of this.
“Why would she do it for our Pack either?! She’s not even the fucking Luna!! You made sure of that” she spat at Devran.
Devran was sitting at his desk with his fingers over his lips in deep thought but he heard what Mel said and his eyes snapped up. Oh boy.
“Melanie, you do not want to test me right now. I'm barely holding onto my sanity here. You aren’t the only fucking person who cares about her, alright?! Blaming me isn’t going to help me solve this!” He shouted.
Mel looked surprised, “You care about her? Since when?”
Devran cracked his knuckles and neck before standing up and pacing the room. “Answer me!” She shouted, “Answer me! Since when?!” She pushed at him.
I tried telling her to stop but Melanie is a pain in the ass and she doesn’t listen to anyone.
“SINCE ALWAYS” he blew up at her. She flinched back. “Goddamnit” he huffed out and grabbed his hair again.
“I thought it was just the mate bond...I thought when you rejected her-” she didn’t get to finish before Dev cut in.
“You thought wrong. I’ve still kept track of her every move. I’ve still threatened away any man who wants to touch her. And I have even more reason to care about her now because she-” he stopped.
Mel urged him to go on and I was at the edge of my seat wanting to know too. “We shared an important experience together,” he said without explaining.
“This isn’t the time guys...we're here waiting for our village to be attacked and then we have to toture people until they tell us where Mira is..in case you forgot” I huffed at them.
All of our emotions were running high and between wolves it’s even worse. We get nasty and snappy. You shouldn’t aggravate anything with sharp teeth. It bites.
“Melanie if you are volunteering then I want you with the watch wolves. If anyone looks suspicious in that school I wanna know about it” he ordered her to her mission.
She nodded and squeezed my arm in reassurance for our best friend’s safety before she left. Then it was me and the beast.
“What happened with you and Mira? I know you held your tongue because Mel was here but you can’t tell me it’s nothing” I called him out.
“Oh my Goddess...did she sleep with you? It’s the only thing you’d deem an ‘important experience’ I know you” I shook my head at him.
What the hell was Mira thinking? I leave the girl alone for a week and this is what she does. I would’ve knocked sense into her if I wasn’t so busy making my own bad choices.
I missed this entirely and I feel guilty for being a shitty friend recently. Her and I weren’t being honest with each other, and look where that got us.
I didn’t tell her about Nealin and she didn’t tell me about Devran.
“Look, don’t go all ‘best friend’ on me. I didn’t push your bestie into anything. She wanted it and so did I” he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Dev, do you have feelings for her? You told me you didn’t?” I had to ask again. When I saw him hanging around her again I'd asked him to be sure he wasn’t being an idiot. And he said it was only the mate bond that had affected him before.
“Is this because she's a Mystic? You wanna make her Luna to make you stronger?” I had to ask the harder question. His nostrils flared and he honestly looked like he might beat the shit out of me in a second.
“I’m not using her!” He snarled at me.
I held my hands up in surrender. Before we could continue we got a mindlink that wolves were spotted on the North flank sneaking down here. We let them because we have an ambush waiting ahead.
*Attack to kill, don’t forget to save prisoners* Devran sent the link out to those at the ambush point.
“Let’s join them. I’m out for blood” Devran started for the door. This is the stuff Devran excels in so I'm leaving him to his element.
I’ve been trying to keep my cool and not panic because a Delta is always at his best when he is the left hand and voice of reason.
Mira is my favorite person. She became so important to me in such a short amount of time that I can’t imagine life without her anymore. I need her.
I’m afraid about so many other things in my life and I need my best friend there to be the compassionate kind person she is.
She’s the only person I could confide in about Nealin. And I need to because so much has built up inside of me that I feel I will break if I try to hold back any more.
I need Mira to be there to tell me it’s okay to like Nealin and to want him in the physical way that I do. In all the ways that I do because if I'm being honest with myself it isn’t purely physical.
I need Mira to hold my hand through this confusing time. She can’t be gone. I also need her here because I promised her I would take care of her.
She has lived such a tragic life that I promised I would never let her suffer again. I said I would protect her and I failed.
It pains me to say that but I failed. She might already be dead and that’s the most terrifying thought of all. That we are too late.
Because she knew this was coming she probably just let them do what they had to do without too much of a struggle. She will sacrifice herself for anyone. I’ve always known that.
It’s built in her DNA to put everyone first. It’s her ptsd from her life’s traumas. She’s been sacrificing herself every day of her entire life. She doesn’t even know how to live a normal day without it.
To put herself first.
-
I’ve been standing here watching Devran beat the shit out of these wolves for the past 30 minutes. He’s almost belligerent with rage and he’s seeing red. He has been this whole time.
Our ambush was successful and we slaughtered their men but three lucky guys got to come along with us and face Alpha Devran.
These men weren’t even in wolf form anymore because they were too weak to even remain shifted. They were black and blue, they were bloody, they were dirt covered, and they still didn’t give in.
“I will drag you worthless pieces of shit into that school we're hosting your loved ones in and I will make you watch as I rip the throats out of each and every one of them until you talk. You understand me?”
Dev grabbed a fist full of one man’s hair and yanked his head back so he could look at him and expose his neck to him.
That’s how a wolf either submits or kills. The neck.
“Which is it?” He asked one last time. When the man said nothing he got his throat ripped out. “Next?” He asked the second guy. He was breathing heavily and you could see the fear in his eyes. He didn’t wanna die.
“Who do you have in that school? A wife? Daughters? Sons? Understand who you're fucking with right now. I’m not a mentally stable man, buddy. I think you can see that. So don’t test that I won’t slaughter an entire pack worth of people to get my girl back” Devran growled in his ear.
“S-she’s...she’s on a southern border past your guys and out towards the White Claw territories! It’s an abandoned building for old border wolves, you’ll know it when you see it!” he caved.
The third man turned his head to look at him and they exchanged faces before Devran’s wolf took over and he ripped the arms and heads off those men and left them in a pile on the floor.
“Let’s go boys” was all he said after shifting back and he didn’t even bother cleaning all that blood off of him. If there are more enemies out there he has war paint that should scare them off.
He looks straight out of a scary movie, but something wasn’t sitting right in my gut.
“Dev...I don’t know if I believe that they brought her south” I tried stopping him. He continued but I stood in his way. “Dev!”
“What?!” He snapped.
“You are running off of emotion not logic. Calm down, pull your shit together, and think. They might be lying to you. You killed them too quickly. We could’ve gotten more out of them” I finally put him in his place.
Diego is always too much of a chicken to do it.
“Can you feel her? Is she alive?” He suddenly asked me, softly so only we’d here. “What?” I was confused.
“You share that affinity-link. You’re the only one still connected to her. Can you feel her? Did they kill her?” He asked me.
I may have questioned his sudden interest in her before but I see it now. He’s hurting. It’s like rejecting her didn’t even do anything. I know the look of a Mate in pain.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. I had tried to feel her but I couldn’t. “You try Dev...”
I looked at him looking confused. “I can’t, I broke our link.”
“Did you thought?” My question really seemed to throw him for a loop.
“I formally rejected her. You all saw it” he spoke through gritted teeth for having to bring this up again.
“But look at you, man. You’re a mess. You’re a mess because you care as much as I do if she's alive, so try and tap into that. Be vulnerable for a second of your life and try to reconnect that bond. I don’t even know if that’s possible but Mira's already put down all the impossibles...
so” I tried for an encouraging speech.
He looked exasperated but closed his eyes as if to concentrate on something. In a quiet voice he started mumbling things.
“Mira, please. We need more time. I need to fix my mistakes. Moon Goddess please restore this bond. I need my Mate, please” he was barely audible but I heard him.
I had everyone walk ahead and he and I stood in the woods praying.
“Moon Goddess please restore their bond. Please let Mira come back to us” I started praying in my own head. Devran clutched his chest and was breathing heavier.
"I can’t feel her. I don’t feel anything” he pulled at his hair now in total frustration. “Please” he called out to the sky. “What do I have to sacrifice to get her back?” He asked.
They say there's a balance but I was afraid of what he might be willing to do. I was afraid of what I might be willing to do. We both want her back just for different reasons. And I think we both love her just for different reasons.
When Devran growled out it shook the ground beneath my feet. He clutched his chest again and his chest was heaving even more.
“Mira” he said as if he was calling out to her in a mindlink. “Mira, if you're alive I need a sign. Please.”
Him and I just looked at each other because we both had no idea what we were doing. He looked uncomfortable even having me here but he can’t be trusted alone. He might run into that school and burn it to the ground with all those people in it.
I know he blames them for Mira’s sacrifice.
I want to blame them too but it isn’t their fault. She knew what the price was and she paid it without asking them for anything. She wants our Pack to thrive and that’s the actions of a true Luna if I’ve ever seen one.
The next thing to happen to us felt almost unreal and if we weren’t both here to witness it nobody would have believed us.
A stick shot up from the ground and on a patch of dirt it started tracing out letters like this were a pen and a hand was writing.
N. O. R. T. H.
North, I knew those wolves were lying. Devran whistled loudly to get the attention of our men and in a mind link he told those in the search party to stop and that our men would be running up north to find Mira.
*We have confirmation she's alive. Do whatever it takes to get her back. We don’t know who's guarding her* he told them.
Him and I watched as the wind blew the letters away like dust. We waited a minute longer to see if anything else would come but that was it. It’s all we have but it’s enough.
We know Mira is alive. We’ll get her back.