Page 11 of The Wolf Moon

“I don’t want to fight,” I said truthfully.

“Then offer me that throat of yours, Milena,” Alpha Roman suggested, the idea quite appealing to him for some reason. I didn’t trust him, but I knew I couldn’t win this fight. He had tossed away those arrows as if it were nothing to him. And he could move so fast; there was no way I could accurately hit him.

“Would you kill me if I did?” I asked uncertainly.

“Offer your neck and find out,” He responded, his voice low and dangerous.

I could feel the adrenaline wearing off into something more of fearful uselessness. But still, I didn’t trust him. I shook my head firmly, not willing to chance it.

“If you want my neck, you’ll just have get it yourself.”

“The hard way, then,” He stated, taking a firm step forward.

“Don’t move!” I shouted, forcing him to stop. “Step back!”

He stumbled over a step backwards and snarled loudly, his form beginning to change in front of me. He growled loudly at the snap of bone as his hands malformed and became claws. And then he took a few more steps towards me.

“Stop,” I said quietly, my focus more on my order than my volume at this point. He paused again, huffing as he fought against my demand. I had never used this connection like this before meeting the werewolves. So often it was just me, reaching out to calm dying animals or to call them to me. It was too easy for them, but for this man it was something else entirely. I began to struggle to keep my breath.

“Shift,” He suddenly demanded of me, his own form half-changing in front of me. I was startled by his own demand. I suddenly felt something else pushing back towards me; a separate power lifting around us. The werewolves watching seemed to be reacting to his order, as many began to change forms immediately. “Shift.”

“I’m not a lycan!” I cried out in frustration, but just as a said it, a terrible chill crawled under my skin like something within me reaching out to touch the surface of my body. A scent enveloped me; the smell of a wild animal, powerful and of the forest. I gasped, my focus dropping entirely. Just as quickly, the King Alpha was on me, twisting me to the ground.

He suddenly smelled different as well. He smelled like pure power, untamed and seductive; something that caused a drug-like sensation to thrill through me. As he pinned me to the ground, he lowered his face into my chest with a low growl in his throat. I reached for him absently, pulling his face to mine and rubbing my cheek against his, and inhaled his addicting scent as though I had become something wild myself.

I lifted my face away, baring my throat quite suddenly for an entirely different reason than admitting defeat in a challenge. I was submitting. It was as though I had been possessed by this… whatever it was that crawled dangerously within me.

“I won’t accept it,” the King Alpha growled from above me dangerously, anger radiating behind his curious desire. I aimed to look at him, withdrawing my neck, but he immediately grasped my hair in his hand and pulled my face upwards, keeping my throat bare to him dominantly. I gasped, that wild part inside me delighted by it until his next words. “I don’t know what those wretched goddesses are planning, but I won’t play along. You are not my mate.”

He suddenly bit my neck, causing me to yelp in surprise. However, I didn’t feel the pain of wolf fangs digging into my flesh. In fact, he barely bit down; using only his human teeth lightly in a way to purposely not break my skin. It was a clear indication, but I didn’t know what it meant.

He released me, ripping away from me as though it were a difficult thing to do.

“Take her away,” He demanded to those nearby, huffing with rage and no longer looking at me. I remained frozen on the floor of the arena, the strange scents and sensations leaving me all at once until I was nothing more than confused. I wasn’t a lycan, but if I wasn’t, what had happened to me?

“Banish her to the temple. Let the Moon Goddesses watch her wither away. Perhaps they’ll view it as a sacrifice direct to their altar,” He declared angrily before storming away.

I was pulled from the ground swiftly. What lycans remained in human form were murmuring around me, whispering things about mates, blessings, and omens. Some were staring at the bow I had left on the ground. Others were looking to the sky blindly, as if they would be struck down by angry deities at any moment. The rest watched me, avoiding my eye when I looked to them, but holding the same general expression on their faces.

Respect.

Six

Chapter 5

Iwas led by two lycans and a rather somber Caleb, or Beta Caleb as he had been called. We halted in front of what appeared to be a completely rundown and abandoned, enormous building on the outskirts of the Lycan village. I didn’t fight against my fate. In fact, I spent the entire walk towards it in a daze of confusion. However, when seeing the building before me and realizing I was being banished to starve to death within it, I finally found my footing for sanity.

“I’m not going in there,” I declared firmly quite suddenly.

The building windows were boarded up and those boards had bars twisted horribly over them. The door was crossed with metal slabs to prevent entry and even without those, chains with locks were wrapped around the door handles. Remnants of what could have been statues were shattered and ripped from parts of the edge of the roof and it looked as though a symbol had been vandalized several feet up from the front doors. This place looked nothing like a temple and if it had ever been once, it definitely was one no longer.

“You lost the challenge. You’re lucky Alpha Roman didn’t just rip you apart,” Caleb told me simply, though a sense of unease was shrouding his words. I turned to look at him. He was looking at the would-be temple with an expression of regret or otherwise discomfort. A glance at the other two lycans revealed different emotions; looks of distaste and hatred.

“Why is it abandoned? Did you make a new temple somewhere else?” I abruptly inquired, curious about their reaction towards the place. Caleb turned to look at me, careful not to reveal any further expression.

“We don’t follow the Moon Goddesses anymore. All temples have been ordered abandoned. It’s safe to assume you won’t receive any visitors here,” He responded shortly before indicating for the others to open the door. It took a couple of minutes to remove all the barricades. When they finished, they opened one of the doors to the temple and moved away.

“I’m definitely not going in there,” I repeated firmly.

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