Chapter 15 #2
An hour later, tension was building in my gut. The night was passing by and I was running out of time. The females were nowhere near drunk enough to miss my escape and Siobhan had yet to take her eyes off me. I needed a plan and I needed one now.
A cake – one without a penis on it – arrived with a flourish and decorated with a hundred candles.
I don’t think any of the females realised that blowing out candles wasn’t exactly a tradition at a bachelorette party but what the hell.
I blew them out to a cacophony of whoops and cheers as if it was my birthday, not that I’d ever had a birthday cake before.
A young girl who had helped carry the cake offered me a knife to cut it. The room fell silent. Temperamental Lunas that usually wore handcuffs were not supposed to handle big knives, I guess.
“Allie,” I said, proud of my quick thinking, “would you do the honours? It’s only right seeing as you did such a wonderful job putting this party together.”
The room seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. I kept my face clear as she took the knife but made a mental note of where she left it when she was done cutting the cake.
Over the next two hours, I continued working the party.
After a lifetime of near solitude, I was struggling with being swarmed by so many people and yes, swarmed was the right word.
Whatever warning Kole had given everyone to keep their distance in the beginning had apparently been rendered null and void by my invitation to a party.
Women smothered me, pressing close and touching, just like Allie had done.
Hoping my fertility would rub off on them.
Everyone was very excited to celebrate what Kole was going to do to me in six days’ time. It sickened me. These people sickened me.
“Luna?” I turned, finding a woman with bright brown eyes looking up at me.
“I’m Molly. I hope you don’t mind me introducing myself.
” My eyes immediately fell to her rounded belly.
I’d heard about this woman, the first pregnancy in the pack for a long time.
I was surprised her mate had let her out of his sight.
“Hi, Molly.” I pasted a smile on my face. “Congratulations.” I nodded at her belly. “Do you know what you’re having yet?”
“A boy.” She smiled, her voice a soft tinkling sound as her hands rested on her stomach. Unlike the others, she kept a distance from me, choosing not to crowd my space.
“Well, good luck. I hope you have a happy, healthy baby.”
She beamed, her plump cheeks flushing. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.”
Molly looked around, then stepped closer and lowered her voice. “Luna, I hope I’m not overstepping but I just wanted to say I’m sorry for everything you’re dealing with.”
I blinked, surprised by her words.
“I struggled too when I was first brought here. I was happy to have a mate, of course, but I had to leave my family and adjusting took a while for me, so I can’t imagine how hard this is for you. If you need anything…” She trailed off and I looked her over. Was she being sincere?
“Thank you.” Her honesty had caught me off guard. I found myself wanting to pepper her with questions but instead I gave her my pasted on smile. “You’re going to be a great mother.”
“So are you.” Her words were a gut punch, a reminder of what my future might be. A future that terrified me. The fear must have shown on my face because Molly’s smile fell. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” I reassured her. “Excuse me.”
I stepped away and headed for the door, desperately in need of some fresh air.
“Luna?” Siobhan was on my heels.
“Just give me some space,” I said as I stepped into the cool night air.
“You aren’t supposed to?—”
“Just back off!” I spun, glaring at her.
She winced, ducking her head. I knew that look.
I’d worn it myself whenever Kole had asserted his dominance over me.
Immediately, I backed down. I guess this Luna influence thing was kicking in sooner than I’d thought.
“I’m sorry, Siobhan. I just need a minute. You can watch me from the porch.”
She didn’t argue, and instead narrowed her eyes on something behind me.
I turned and saw Kara and Lucy standing a ways away from the pack house.
When they saw me, they looked like they’d just been caught smoking by their parents.
Instead of coming to make conversation with me, they gave me a polite nod and disappeared around the side of the pack house. Odd. What had I just interrupted?
I shook my head. I was too anxious to take on more questions I didn’t have answers to.
I stepped away from the house, going as far as the pole Kole had once chained me to. That seemed like a lifetime ago now.
I could feel eyes on me. Siobhan's eyes. Eyes of other guards set up outside. There were four in total, I’d counted them already. Two at the front entrance, two at the back. They were a roadblock I hadn't figured a way around yet.
I turned my face up to the sky. The moon peered down at me, laughing at me in my stupid high heels. I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at her.
The party had been going strong for a few hours now, but as yet, no one seemed particularly drunk. I guess I’d underestimated a wolf’s constitution. I tried not to panic, tried not to imagine my fate if I didn’t escape tonight.
Calm down, Iona. The night is still young…You’ll figure it out.
“Luna, shouldn’t you be inside enjoying your party?”
I opened my eyes, finding Moira Tourke peering at me in the darkness. “Shouldn’t you have been here three hours ago? Allie is a stickler for punctuality.”
“I’m not scared of the Gamma’s little mate.”
“Your funeral.” I shrugged. Allie might be small for a wolf, but if her party planning was anything to go by, her will was mighty and not to be messed with.
I should probably introduce myself, play nice, but this woman openly hated me, so there was no point in pretending we were friends.
“You should get inside. There’s cake shaped like a dick if you’re into that kind of thing. ”
She didn’t move. I wondered what plans this woman had for me. Did she want to hurt me to hurt Kole? Or help me escape to hurt Kole? How useful she was going to be to me would depend entirely on how crazy she was.
“You know, I’m surprised you’re handling this so well,” she said, a false smile playing around her lips. “I seem to remember you being less than pleased at the idea of being our Luna.”
“I’m still less than pleased,” I admitted. The best lies always had a dose of truth in them. “But it’s going to happen anyway. Dinah…Luna Dinah, has talked me through many things and I promised her I would try to come around to the idea.” The lie was tripping off my tongue so easily now.
“I’m sure our Luna did tell you many things. Did she also tell you that all human Lunas die miserable and bloody?”
“What’re you talking about?”
She snickered. “Let me guess, you’ve been promised he’ll be gentle…that you’re, what? Precious?” Her mouth curled in a sardonic grin. “You’re a sacrifice. Given to us by the moon to boost our numbers. Nothing more.”
“A sacrifice? Kole’s going to murder me now? Somehow, I don’t think so.” Rape me, yes. Murder me, no. His wolf needed me alive. Though I had no doubt that beast could kill me by accident.
“Not on purpose, but eventually he won’t be able to help it. You’ll make it through the ceremony, long enough to get pregnant and give him a son, but the end is inevitable. You can’t handle our wolf and sooner or later it’ll kill you, or you’ll kill yourself.”
I stared at her. This woman was unhinged but that didn’t mean she was lying.
“I would never do that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” She cocked her head, her eyes sharp.
“Do you really think the ceremony is going to be an easy ride? Maybe you wouldn’t do it yet, but afterwards, when you’re traumatised from being taken rough and hard in front of our snapping teeth, from giving birth to your rapist's baby, after months, even years of being under lock and key because no Alpha lets his human Luna out of his sight, maybe then you’ll think differently about ending it. ”
This woman was clearly dangerous, driven mad by grief, but I wasn’t afraid even though I knew that everything she was saying was true.
“You’re not scaring me.”
“No?”
“No. You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. I know about the ceremony, about the pregnancy. I know about the Gulfs, I know about all the shit that can kill me out here. Dinah and Kole have told me about all of it.”
“And the beast?” she asked, stepping closer. I had to fight the urge to step away from this mad wolf.
“I’ve seen Kole’s beast.” Glimpsed it, anyway.
“No,” she grinned. “Not Kole’s beast. The one out there, the one that wanders lost in the woods. Did they tell you who it really—” She cut herself off, her nostrils flaring. “Maybe they can tell you.”